Federal courts open in College Station, Texas and El Centro, California
S. 32 — LACA · Filed by Ted Cruz (R-TX) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jan 8, 2025 · Signed
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill lets federal courts hold cases in two new cities. College Station, Texas and El Centro, California can now host federal courts. Before this law, federal courts in those areas had to meet elsewhere.
Who it affects
People in College Station and El Centro who need federal courts. They no longer have to travel as far. Lawyers and witnesses in those areas also save time and money.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say if courts must hold cases there or can choose to. The actual rule depends on other federal laws not shown here.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Jan 8, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 8, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
- Feb 12, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Senate Committee on the Judiciary discharged by Unanimous Consent”
- Feb 12, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S932; text: CR S932)”
- Aug 31, 2026 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 378 - 10…”
- Aug 31, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Schmidt moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
- Sep 14, 2026 — Sent to president · Congress.gov: “Presented to President”
- Sep 16, 2026 — Signed into law · Congress.gov: “Signed by President”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (482 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-18.
“Federal courts open in College Station, Texas and El Centro, California” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s32/simple Report an error