Texas Legislature Comprehensive Study Guide

Structure and Characteristics of the Texas Legislature

• Bicameral System:
  • The Texas Legislature is a bicameral legislative body consisting of two separate chambers: the Texas Senate and the Texas House of Representatives.
  • The total membership across both chambers is $181$ legislators.
• Texas Senate:
  • Consists of $31$ members.
  • Senators serve four-year staggered terms.
• Texas House of Representatives:
  • Consists of $150$ members.
  • Representatives serve two-year terms.
  • There are no constitutional limits on the number of terms a representative or senator may serve.
• Regular Sessions (Biennial Schedule):
  • Frequency: The Texas Legislature meets in regular session biennially—once every two years, occurring only in odd-numbered years.
  • Next Session: The next regular legislative session convenes in $2027$.
  • Duration: A regular session lasts for a maximum of $140$ calendar days.
  • Adjournment (Sine Die): At midnight on the final ($140\text{th}$) day, the term is declared Sine Die, and the legislature officially adjourns.
• Gubernatorial Checks and Balances:
  • If the legislature cannot address all legislative priorities or necessary state issues before the end of the $140$-day regular session, the Governor holds executive checks on the legislative branch:
  1. Special Sessions: The Governor has the sole constitutional authority to call special sessions after regular adjournment.
  2. Agenda Setting: The Governor exclusively sets the agenda for any special session (deciding what specific issues lawmakers are permitted to address, such as calling a session to find a solution to a specific public issue).
  3. Special sessions are limited to a maximum duration of $30$ days each.

Qualifications, Demographics, and Compensation

• Formal Eligibility Requirements:
  • Candidates for legislative office must be qualified voters and cannot have been convicted of a felony.
  • Texas House Requirements:
  • Must be a United States citizen.
  • Must be at least $21$ years of age.
  • Must be a resident of Texas for at least $2$ years prior to the election.
  • Must be a resident of the specific district represented for at least $12$ months prior to the election.
  • Texas Senate Requirements:
  • Must be a United States citizen.
  • Must be at least $26$ years of age.
  • Must be a resident of Texas for at least $5$ years prior to the election.
  • Must be a resident of the specific district represented for at least $12$ months prior to the election.
• Informal Qualifications and Demographics:
  • Informal qualifications often exert greater practical importance than formal legal requirements.
  • Historically, legislators tend to be older, male, highly educated, and engaged in professional occupations.
  • Evolving cultural and social shifts have led to increased demographic diversity within the legislature.
  • Judith Zaffirini Case Study:
  • Senator Judith Zaffirini was the first Mexican American woman elected to the Texas State Senate, taking office in $1986$
  • On December $31$, $2023$, Senator Zaffirini became the "Dean of the Senate" as the longest-tenured active state senator.
  • She has never missed a single vote on the floor of the Senate throughout her entire career.
  • She has passed more bills than any other state senator in Texas history.
• Salary, Per Diem, and Retirement:
  • Base Salary: Members of the Texas Legislature are paid \text{\\$7,200} per year.
  • Per Diem: Members receive a daily per diem allowance of \text{\\$221} while the legislature is in session to cover living expenses.
  • Comparative Compensation: Texas legislators are paid the lowest salary among lawmakers in the $10$ most populous U.S. states.
  • Socioeconomic Impact: In keeping with Texas's traditionalistic political culture, low legislative pay makes it difficult to serve unless an individual is independently wealthy, employed in a career with extreme scheduling flexibility (such as attorneys or business executives), or otherwise supported by outside income sources.
  • Pensions: Legislators qualify for state pension benefits if they retire at age $50$ with $12$ years of service, or at age $60$ with $8$ years of service.
• Staffing and Operating Facilities:
  • The Texas Legislature provides support for administrative staff assistance.
  • Most members maintain full-time constituent offices within their home districts as well as offices in the state capital in Austin.
  • At the start of each regular session, both the House and Senate adopt operational resolutions establishing monthly allowances for salary and office expenses.
  • Standing committees receive dedicated funding for staff salaries.
  • Specialized nonpartisan assistance is provided by agencies such as the Texas Legislative Council and the House Research Organization.

Representation, Reapportionment, and Redistricting

• Single-Member vs. Multimember District Systems:
  • Members of the Texas Legislature are elected from single-member districts (districts represented by exactly one elected legislator).
  • Electoral Standard: A candidate or party needs to win only a plurality of votes to win a district seat.
  • Representation Advantage: Single-member districts promote distinct geographical representation and allow districts to be drawn to support minority representation. In contrast, multimember districts tend to promote majority representation and domination.
• Decennial Census and Reapportionment:
  • Every $10$ years, the United States Government conducts a federal census to count the population of all given areas.
  • Reapportionment: The legal process of reallocating representation and legislative seats among districts or states based on shifting population.
  • Because the total seat count of the U.S. House of Representatives is capped, state allocations adjust based on whether states lose or gain population relative to others.
  • $2020$ Texas Census Count: The official $2020$ Census count for Texas was $29,145,505$.
• Redistricting Mandates and Ideal District Sizes:
  • Redistricting: The process of redrawing district boundary lines.
  • The Texas Constitution mandates that the state legislature redraw legislative district lines following every federal decennial census.
  • District lines must be drawn so that every district contains roughly equal population counts.
  • $2020$ District Population Calculation:
  • Texas House Districts: $\frac{29,145,505}{150} = 194,303$ residents per district.
  • Texas Senate Districts: $\frac{29,145,505}{31} = 940,177$ residents per district.
• Map-Drawing Process and Political Dynamics:
  • In Texas, the state legislature itself writes and passes the redistricting maps.
  • Interest groups seek maximum advantage, established political groups defend existing power, and incumbent legislators design maps to secure personal reelection.
• Gerrymandering Techniques:
  • When the political party in power redraws district boundary lines specifically to benefit their own party and remain in power, the process is called gerrymandering.
  • Packing: Concentrating as many voters of an opposing group or party as possible into a single section or small number of districts, thereby diluting their influence in surrounding districts.
  • Cracking: Spreading opposing voters thinly across many different districts so that they cannot achieve a voting majority in any individual district.
  • Competitive Districting: Drawing boundaries to create balanced districts where major political parties have relatively equal opportunities to win.
  • 

Legislative Leadership Structure

• Concentration of Leadership Power:
  • Institutional power in the Texas Legislature is heavily concentrated in the leadership offices of the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor.
• Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives:
  • Presides over the $150$-member Texas House of Representatives.
  • Elected directly by the members of the House as their first formal act at the beginning of each session.
  • Key Leadership Powers:
  • Appoints members to all standing committees.
  • Appoints the chairpersons of all standing committees.
  • Decides which standing committee receives each introduced bill (if the Speaker refuses to send a bill to a committee, the bill dies).
• Lieutenant Governor of Texas:
  • Presides over the $31$-member Texas Senate.
  • Is not an elected member of the Senate; elected statewide directly by Texas voters.
  • Exercises presiding leadership powers in the Senate that are similar in scope to those of the Speaker in the House.

Committee System

• Legislative Work and Screening:
  • Once the legislature convenes, members divide into committees where the majority of legislative work is performed.
  • Committees serve as an essential screening mechanism to filter proposed bills.
  • Markup Process: The stage in committee where proposed bills are formally reviewed, amended, revised, or completely rewritten.
  • Public Hearings: Under constitutional requirement, all bills must undergo a formal hearing that experts and members of the public are permitted to attend and present testimony.
• Standing Committees:
  • Permanent legislative committees established in each chamber to handle recurring policy topics.
  • House Standing Committees: The House maintains $30$ standing committees.
  • Senate Standing Committees: The Senate maintains $16$ standing committees.
  • Ways and Means Committee: The chief tax-writing committee in the House, which handles every single bill involving state taxes.
  • Every standing committee is directed by an appointed chairperson.
• Select Committees:
  • Temporary committees created to examine, study, or address a specific or major issue.
  • Example: A select committee created to review and investigate the actions surrounding the school shooting in Uvalde.
  • Select committees are investigative in nature and cannot write or pass legislation directly; they issue formal recommendations and reports.

The Legislative Process: How a Bill Becomes Law

• Definitions and Introduction:
  • A bill is a proposed law.
  • Anyone can draft or write the text of a bill, but only a member of the legislature can formally introduce a bill as its sponsor.
• Mandatory Statutory Requirements:
  1. A bill must pass both legislative chambers (House and Senate) in identical form.
  2. All bills must be read $3$ separate times in each chamber.
  3. Every bill must be reported favorably by its assigned committee.
  4. Every bill must undergo a public hearing and have an attached fiscal note evaluating financial impact.
  5. Standard bills take effect $90$ days after the regular legislative session ends.
  6. During the first $60$ days of a regular session, lawmakers are restricted to working strictly on items declared as emergency matters by the Governor.
• Step-by-Step Procedural Workflow:
  1. Introduction and Committee Referral:
  • House: The bill is introduced and assigned to a standing committee by the Speaker.
  • Senate: If accepted, the bill is referred to a committee of jurisdiction (e.g., energy, education) by the Lieutenant Governor.
  1. Committee Stage and Markup:
  • The committee holds public hearings, reviews expert testimony, attaches fiscal notes, and conducts markup (revising, amending, or rewriting).
  • If approved by a vote of committee members, the bill is reported favorably.
  • Once reported favorably, the bill is placed on a legislative calendar to manage floor time during the session time crunch (placement on a calendar schedules debate but does not mean the bill is approved).
  1. House Floor Consideration:
  • The bill is read a second time on the House floor (the caption is read) and debate begins.
  • Each representative is allotted $10$ minutes to speak during debate.
  • Members may speak for or against the bill and offer floor amendments (they cannot rewrite or markup the entire bill on the floor, as comprehensive markup occurs in committee).
  • Upon conclusion of debate, a record or voice vote is called.
  • Passage requires a simple majority of $76$ votes in the House.
  • If passed, the bill is transmitted to the Senate for consideration.
  1. Senate Floor Consideration and Filibuster:
  • Both majority and minority party members review and debate the bill.
  • Floor debate in the Senate has no time limit per speaker.
  • Filibuster: A tactic used in the Senate to delay or block a bill from coming to a final vote by holding the floor and keeping debate open for an extended period to run out the clock.
    • Germane Rule: Unlike filibusters in the U.S. Senate (where debate topic rules are loose), a filibuster in the Texas Senate must remain germane (strictly relevant) to the topic of the bill under debate.
    • Filibusters can occur only in the Senate, not in the House.
  • Once debate concludes (or no filibuster occurs), a vote is called.
  • Passage requires a simple majority of $16$ votes in the Senate.
  1. Reconciling Chamber Differences (Conference Committee):
  • If a bill passed by the Senate differs in any way from the version passed by the House, the originating chamber must vote to accept or reject the Senate's changes.
  • If the originating chamber does not agree to the changes, a Conference Committee is called.
  • The Conference Committee consists of $10$ members ($5$ from the House and $5$ from the Senate) who negotiate to resolve differences into a single unified bill.
  • If an agreement is reached, the committee issues a Conference Report (the final text of the bill).
  • The Conference Report must be submitted back to both the House and Senate for a final vote without further floor amendments.
  1. Gubernatorial Action:
  • If the identical bill passes both chambers, it is sent to the Governor for signature or veto (budget bills follow specific line-item veto procedures).