The
Bicameral legislature (as with Congress and in all states
except
Branch of government closest to the people—both chambers elected from single-member geographic districts of equal size (approx. 139,000/house district [150 in all]; approx. 672,600/senate district [31 in all])
Redistricting occurs at least every 10 years to reflect population shifts, as indicated by the decennial US Census.
--# of house seats and # of senate seats remain the same, only the district boundaries change
--Legislature draws its own district lines and congressional district lines
--Legislative
Redistricting Board is the
--Gerrymandering for political advantage is very common
--highly contentious legislative redistricting battles in the last 16 years
--US
House with slim Republican edge => 2003 redistricting partly due to DeLay’s
efforts to try to keep Republicans in the majority in
--diffusion of political and/or ethnic minorities
--concentration of minorities in a few districts to minimize their overall representation in the legislature or Congress
--pairing incumbents against each other in campaigns through redrawing lines
--prohibitions on racial gerrymandering exist, ethnic and political gerrymandering remain common practices not touched by the Supreme Court’s rulings
Qualifications for
Membership
US Citizen; registered voter
21 years old for state house of representatives (2 years TX resident, 1 yr. district resident)
26 years old for state senate (5 years TX resident, 1 year district resident)
Informal Qualifications:
Republican WASP (proportional underrepresentation of Hispanics and African-Americans in state legislature—may change in the next 10-20 years)
Male (women make up only approx. 20% of legislature’s membership)
Lawyer (US is unique in its high proportion of lawyers in its legislatures)
--legal training/expertise (though legislators usually do not draft their sponsored legislation themselves)
--citizens erroneously conceive that lawyers understand the legislative process better than other professions
--lawyers have more flexibility to serve in the legislature; gain prestige for their firms or for themselves (in TX it’s not uncommon to see lawyer-legislators representing big firms or other clients before state agencies during the interim between sessions)
--some interest groups “hire a legislator” (approx. 1/3 of legislators in TX are lawyers), especially to represent them before state commissions or boards
--lawyers must legally be granted 30-140-30 day delays in trials if they are serving in the legislature—often delays will benefit clients
Access to Money—good candidates, otherwise qualified and willing to serve, are often left out of the political campaigns because of lack of funds
--spending on bumper stickers, yard signs, slogans, radio/TV commercials, billboards, musical theme songs, etc. is often decisive in how many or most voters vote (these all increase the name recognition, which is crucial to any political campaign, in a state/nation that consists of ill-informed voters)
Organization of the
Presiding officers:
Lt. Governor (in the Senate)—Not a senator; elected in a state-wide partisan election
--in case of vacancy, the senate elects one of its own members to serve as lt. governor until next regular session
--serves a 4-year term
--one
of the most powerful members of the
--no voting rights in senate, except in case of tie vote
Speaker of the House (in the House)—IS A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE; elected from his/her own district in a regular legislative campaign as legislator
--full voting rights in the House, though rarely will exercise such rights
--elected from the House membership as speaker
--punitive action may be taken against political opponents once elected to speaker’s post => little opposition against incumbent speakers in most legislative sessions
--supportive members become part of the speaker’s “team” regardless of party affiliation (prestigious committee appointments, chairmanships, vice-chairmanships, etc.)
--campaign contributions and lobby support for legislative programs may be acquired by members of the speaker’s “team” more easily
--Laws against “legislative bribery” (speaker candidates making deals with members of the house in exchange for their election as speaker) are rarely or with difficulty enforced
--Campaign contributions for speaker’s race may be only of $100 or less, all contributions of $10 or more must be reported
--major economic interests’ support still crucial to securing speakership
Legislative Committees
Division of power/labor; streamlining of the legislative process
--Standing committees: long-term, general subject matter (e.g., taxing, public education, agriculture, state affairs)
--Subcommittees: divisions of standing committees; specific subject matter within the broader area
--Ad hoc committees: unique specific issues or problems (only one session or so)
--Conference committees: where house and senate versions of a bill are reconciled and final changes are made before sending it back to both chambers for final vote
--Interim committees: between sessions; meetings to consider proposed legislation for the next session or to deal with problems unresolved in the previous session
Members of the legislature each serve on at least one committee, often more. Seniority and closeness to the leadership will affect the committee assignments one receives
Legislative Staff:
$7500/month for house staff; $22,000/month for senate staff
--Reliance on lobbyists’ information and agency liaisons => edge/advantage given to the interest groups and corporations and businesses and professions
House Research Organization and
Opposition from both special interest groups and from the general public against increased appropriations for legislative staff and committees (public are ignorant of need for reform; special interests are self-interested and don’t want reform)
--Legislators
with surplus in expense accounts are heralded as conscientious stewards of the
state’s money (though they may just be incompetent and ignorant of how bills
affect the state and thus may cost
--Legislators with no leftovers in their expense accounts may be perceived by the public as wasteful or corrupt (but may be in reality more informed about issues and in a better position to help taxpayers save money in the long run).
--Committees have no professional, year-round staffs
--TX expenditures for legislative staff salaries, services, and accommodations are < 0.3% of the total state expenditures.
Amateurism in the
More focus on personal concerns and income than on the public interests (remember that farmers drafted the constitution—expected “citizen legislators” to do their work for the common good, and want to get home to their land ASAP. Little business or lawyerly influence in the early days of the state constitution).
House: 2-year terms
--$7200/year; $125/day while in session for expenses
--travel reimbursements while in session
Senate: 4-year terms (except after redistricting, when ½ the senate will face re-election just two years later, because all senators face re-election in the next general election year following the census)
--$7200/year; $125/day while in session for expenses
--travel reimbursements while in session
**Texas Ethics Commission (comprised of 8 members appointed jointly by the governor, lt. governor, and speaker of the house, from a lists of candidates proposed by the Democratic and Republican Legislative Caucuses; commission members may not be legislators) may propose legislative salary increases; voters must approve of any proposed increase…
--Primary loyalty of legislators is usually to the hand that feeds them, which means that there will often be conflicts of interests between legislators’ official duties and their duties as private businessmen, lawyers, etc.
More turnover in the State Legislature than in the US Congress (though incumbency return rate is still pretty high)
--State senators serve slightly longer on average than state representatives
--term limits, should they be imposed, may make the legislators more beholden to special interests for information, etc., than the present system allowing an unlimited number of terms.
Limited Session:
Meets on the 2nd Tuesday in January of odd-numbered years
--140 calendar days for the session; session will end in late May or very early June.
--huge volume of legislation to be considered => passage or killing of bills without much thoughtful consideration (5484 bills considered in regular session of the 79th legislature [2005]; 1389 passed; 19 vetoed. Combined bills, resolutions = 9338 proposed, 4961 passed)
Lobbyists and administrators from state agencies and legislative leadership become primary sources of information for most legislators’ decision-making efforts
Bills of limited scope or trivial matters consume much of
the legislature’s time—e.g. bills regulating the size of melon containers or
minnow seining in a specific county; resolutions honoring Frank for 50 years of
best coffee in
Bills introduced as favors do not usually receive consideration in committee, let alone on the floor, especially if they do not have lobby, administrative, or legislative support.
Little time for deliberation, causes detriment to the public interest (rarely will one see legislators paying attention to floor debate)
Refusal of state citizens to accept annual sessions
--fear they will do more harm than good
--worst legislation usually passes at the end of the session, historically
--some reforms in 1993 (last 17 days of session, house may consider only those bills originating in the senate or previously approved in the house; 24 hours given to members to study legislation before floor action is taken)
Little organized political party opposition to legislative leadership
--bipartisan committee chairs
--recent shifts from rural to suburban and urban power
The Legislative Process
Presiding Officers: Lieutenant
Governor (Senate) and Speaker of the House (House)
Selection of Committee chairmen/vice-chairmen and overall committee membership => influence over policy making decisions made in committee (the first level of consideration for all bills in the state legislature)
Speaker’s control over all appointments to the House Appropriations Committee
--members of Appropriations Committee are ex officio chairs of subcommittees for budget and oversight of the 35 substantive committees; Appropriations Committee members are liaisons between Appropriations Committee and other committees
--all other committees in the House are appointed on a limited seniority system (1/2 are chosen on the basis of seniority; the other ½ and the chair and vice-chair are all appointed directly by the speaker)—Standing committee chairs appoint subcommittee chairs/vice-chairs and membership
Lieutenant Governor appoints total membership and chairs/vice-chairs of all committees and permanent subcommittees in the Senate (informal seniority system allows up to 1/3 of committee membership to be selected by the members of the senate itself)
Both Speaker and Lt. Governor’s control over committee membership => predictability of committee action (friends are rewarded; opponents are punished by committee assignments; interest groups will lobby presiding officers to place certain members on key committees for their own advantage)
More prestigious committee assignments for legislators => greater influence over other legislators, lobbyists and state administrators
Legislators will often go along with the leadership in order to get along with other legislators
--Leadership has more bargaining power with lobbyists, as the leadership is responsible for committee assignments for both legislators and bills
--Reciprocal relationship between chairs and leadership—ideology is more important in the state legislature than is party membership
Committee Jurisdiction:
Presiding officers assign bills to particular committees; committee jurisdiction
in
--may send opposed legislation to a hostile committee; send favored legislation to a friendly committee (easy to do because the committees are assigned on the basis of leadership preferences)
--negotiations between leadership and other legislators may => these legislators’ bills being heard in a favorable committee, if compromise is promised
Committee Powers and Functions:
Compromise and accommodation
--most often bills are amended or killed in committees
--rewriting of the bill in its entirety is not uncommon in committees
--pigeonholing (killing the bill by failing to bring it up for consideration)
--substantial alteration through amendment
--bills will usually be mangled from their original form when in comm..
Division of labor crucial to considering large amounts of legislation in a short period of time; committees allow this.
--committees hold public hearings (witnesses are called, both pro- and con-)
--debates in the committees are held
--mark-up of a bill (rewriting)
--other
legislators become informed of bills’ functions through committee members’
testimony; committee decisions are often regarded as sacrosanct in the
Committee membership in
--most
Committees are often the burying ground for bills through the pigeonholing practice
--bills may be forced out of committee by discharge petition (rarely happens, due to the esteem in which committee independence is held)
--Senators in Texas legislature may “tag” a bill, requiring 48 hours notice to be given prior to any action in committee (short sessions => effective killing of some bills in committee through this procedure, because toward the end, time runs out; senators limited to one tag each per session)
Bureaucratic Oversight:
Watchdog function (committees are primary watchdogs over the bureaucracy)
--charged with looking to see whether law is being enforced in the way intended by the legislature or if new or revised legislation is needed
--competition between coalition of committees and agencies and interest groups for government $$
Little real
legislative oversight in
--length of sessions, lack of committee meetings
--committee members’ high turnover rates
--short tenure of most legislators (usually only 8-10 years)
--longer periods of service for bureaucrats and lobbyists
Calendars:
Flow of legislation from committees to the respective chamber floors controlled by calendars; power is centralized in the presiding officers
--delays in bill debates may be in part due to supporters trying to gain votes or opponents trying to dissuade members from voting for a bill
--parliamentary tactics such as the filibuster (talking incessantly in the senate to attempt to stall debate, draw attention to a measure, or kill a bill through withdrawal or ending of session); tagging (see above); proposition of frivolous amendments (if two trains…; debate and vote on each amendment separately)
House Calendars
Speaker has no formal control over the calendars (that belongs to the Calendars committees, membership and chairmanship of which is appointed by the speaker)
--Calendars Committee may be used as a legislative “black hole” to dispose of unwanted bills (if debate is never scheduled, no action may be taken on the bill)
Numerous calendars for different kinds of bills
--Daily House Calendar (new bills and resolutions for consideration)
--Supplemental House Calendar (measures passed to third reading on previous day; leftover items from DHC a previous day; measures on the current DHC; postponed business from previous day; notice to call from the table a motion tabled subject to call on the previous day)
--Local and Consent Calendar (local and noncontroversial measures)
--Congratulatory and Memorial Calendar (congratulatory and memorial resolutions and motions)
--seven categories of calendars in addition to the four above
Senate Calendar:
Rules require consideration of bills in order in which they are reported out of committee (rules are skirted with 2/3 vote of the entire senate to suspend the rules)
--blocking bill (a bill that is filed and reported out of committee at the beginning of each session that will never be acted upon) filed to force every bill up before the senate to vote to suspend the rules (gives power to the minority in the senate, and to those who have received the favor of the lt. governor)
--2/3 vote requirement may result in the killing of a bill without even having a floor vote on the matter because 2/3 never mustered
--11 senators can block legislation from being debated and voted
--2/3 of both houses is required for a quorum to conduct business
From the Floor:
3 separate readings of each bill on 3 different days is required by the state const.
--first reading is when bill is introduced, before it’s assigned to a committee
--second reading is before the major floor debate and vote (amendments offered during this time may be approved by simple majority)
--third reading is after major floor debated (amendments offered during this time may be approved by 2/3 vote)
--4/5 of the membership may vote to read a bill for the third time on the same day as the second reading.
On the House Floor: Content knowledge of a bill is often minimal, even if positions on bills are strongly for or against. Legislators may be reacting on gut instinct rather than legitimate information about the functions of a bill.
--votes on bills may often be based more upon who is sponsoring it or who is opposing it rather than for or against its actual content
--votes are not recorded individually, unless a motion is made and accepted for a recorded vote, in which case, individual legislators’ votes are recorded in the journal.
--Points of order (if sustained, corrections must be made in the committee in which the bill was originally heard before floor consideration of it may continue…several bills die because points of order are raised against them, and sent back to committee where no action is taken). Speaker of the House gets to rule on points of order.
--debate is limited (each house member granted only a few minutes to speak)
--bills may be forced out of a calendars committee by majority vote of the house membership; bills favored by the speaker are highly likely to be given priority on the calendar
On the Senate Floor: Shorter debates than in the House, due to the 2/3 rule
--most compromises reached prior to floor action
--filibuster (limited to one senator) (more often occur at end of session than at other times during the session)
--no recorded vote unless motion is made and granted for a recorded vote
--unlimited debate (each senator can ramble as long as s/he wants)
--if senate is convened as a “committee of the whole”, the lt. governor may debate and vote on all questions; otherwise s/he has no power to do so.
Conference Committees:
Resolution of differences between house and senate versions of a bill
--5 members from each chamber, appointed by their respective presiding officers (3 from each chamber must vote to adopt the conference committee report)
--yea or nay vote on the floor after conference committee report, or bill will be sent back to the conference committee for further revision
After adoption of a bill by both chambers of the legislature in identical form, it is sent to the governor, who may either:
--sign the bill into law
--veto the bill (at which point, if the legislature is still in session, the veto may be overridden by 2/3 vote of both chambers)
--not sign the bill, thus allowing it to become law (after 10 days if legislature is still in session; after 20 days if it is not in session)
Legislative Budget Board
Comprised of Lt. Governor and Speaker of the House; 4 reps. and 4 senators; chairs of senate State Affairs and Finance Committees, and House Ways and Means and Appropriations committees.
In continuous operation, even when legislature is not in session
Prepares Budget proposal/appropriations proposals to be sent to the legislature and to the governor; also has authority over strategic planning for state, bill analyses, and policy/impact analyses over education, criminal justice, etc.
Legislative Council
Comprised of Lt. Governor and Speaker of the House; 6 senators, 6 reps.
Source of information for and support to the legislature, state agencies and other governmental institutions. Helps legislators in drafting legislative proposals
Legislative Audit Committee
Comprised of Lt. Governor and Speaker of the House; chairs of taxing committees, house appropriations committee, senate State Affairs committee
Formally reviews state agency and department expenditures; appoints the state auditor (head of the State Auditor’s Office)
Sunset Advisory Commission
Comprised of Lt. Governor and Speaker of the House; 4 senators, 4 reps. and 2 public members
Reevaluates periodically state agencies that are under sunset provisions to determine whether they should be given renewed lease on life.