Texas colleges would be required to establish firm policies for dealing with sexual assault -- including defining punishment for violations and protocol for reporting and responding to reports -- under a bill passed by the Texas House Monday.

The policies would address an issue that has drawn increasing attention over the last several months as high-profile cases, including one at the University of Texas at Austin and another at the University of Houston, have raised questions about how schools handle sexual assaults.

But the House rejected a proposal to put together a task force to better understand what most agree has become a major concern. Research suggests thousands of college students are victims of sexual assault each year, yet the vast majority go unreported.

The largely party-line vote against the task force amendment, 46-97, drew ire from Austin Democrat Donna Howard.

"What do we need to do to make sure that this body protects the women in this state?" Howard asked.

The task force would have reviewed federal laws -- including Title IX and the Clery Act, which requires schools to report sexual assaults -- and helped develop policy guidelines Texas schools may now be required to draft.

Larry Gonzales, a Central Texas Republican who questioned the amendment Monday, said he thought the legislation was too significant to pass after a 15-second discussion on the House floor.

In each of the last two sessions, Democrat Dawnna Dukes has sponsored a bill that would create the task force, but the bill has failed to make it to the House for a vote. This session, the bill has yet to make it out of committee.

"To my knowledge, we never had the conversation," Gonzales said. "I don't know if that's a good deal or a bad deal, I just know it's a little meaty for a 15-second amendment."

Under the bill passed Monday, colleges must require entering freshmen to attend an orientation session on the school's campus sexual assault policy before or during the first semester. Schools also have to review their policies every other year.

The federal government requires schools to track the number of sexual assaults reported on campus. At many Texas schools, that number rose last year. The reports, known as Clery reports, showed a 450 percent increase at the University of Houston, from two incidents in 2012 to 11 last year. The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University reported smaller increases.

The numbers probably don't mean violent incidents are more frequent. Instead, experts say they suggest that students increasingly are aware of where to report assaults and feel more confident that their cases will be handled properly.

Houston Chronicle reporter Brian M. Rosenthal contributed to this report.