ch 23 texas legislature

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Chapter 23

The

Legislature


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Texas Legislature in Context

(P. 732) 31 member Senate representing 31 senatorial

districts

150 member House of Representatives representing150 legislative districts

Has the eleventh largest state legislature whileranking second in population

Ranks 49th in the nation in its ratio of representationto population

One of only nine legislatures that does not meet for ayearly regular session (P. 736)


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Texas Legislature in Context

Citizen legislature - Keeping the job of legislator asa part-time function that many citizens can perform

Members of the Texas Legislature receive just$7,200 base pay per year and $139 per day ofLegislative Session (P. 734)

Professional legislatures & hybrid legislatures

Because of the total compensation and retirementbenefits provided Texas legislators, we defineTexass legislature as a hybrid legislature.


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Qualifications for Office

(P. 734) TX House TX Senate

U.S. Citizen U.S. Citizen

Qualified Voter Qualified Voter

2 year in State 5 year in State

1 year in District 1 year in District 21 yrs old 26 yrs old


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Length of Terms

(P. 733)

Party affiliation:

Candidates for the Texas House and Senate mustrun for their political partys nomination in a party

primary and win the seat in the general election.The election of independent candidates is quite rare.

Terms: House - 2 years

Senate - 4 years in staggered elections There are no term limits in the Texas legislature.


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Theories of Representation

Delegate Theory

Trustee Theory

The Politico Approach Microcosm Theory

Asserts that the legislature should reflect the broader

society.

Evaluating the legislature based on microcosm

theory suggests that the legislature isunrepresentative, particularly in terms of gender.


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Elections & Redistricting

(P. 736) Texas uses a Single-Member District Plurality system

(SMDP) for general elections to the state legislature.

Texass primary elections for state and local officesand primary elections for U.S. Senate & U.S. House

of Representatives use the Single-Member DistrictMajority system (SMDM).

Redistricting

Between 1921 and 1951, the Texas Legislaturenever redistricted nor added new seats, despiteperiods of rapid population growth in some parts ofthe state and population decline in other areas.


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Redistricting Cont.

(P. 737) RULES OF THE GAME: The Voting Rights Act and

similar legislation ensure the representation ofminorities who had previously faced discrimination.

Majority-minority districts - election districts in whichthe majority of the population comes from a racial orethnic minority district

Hunt v. Cromartie (1999) - District lines drawn forpartisan advantage as long as the principle of oneperson-one vote is followed


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The Texas Constitution and

Redistricting1. Districts must be contiguous.

2. Districts must respect county boundaries as muchas possible.

3. The state must use the Single Member DistrictPlurality method (SMDP).

states like Iowa create nonpartisan or bipartisan

independent commissions to draw the districtlines.


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Redistricting Games

Legislative Redistricting Board (P. 737)created in1948 steps in if the legislature is unable to pass aredistricting plan for the legislative seats or when

state or federal courts have invalidated a redistrictingplan (Members: Lt. Gov; SofH; AG; GLO; CPA)

In 2000, there was a divided legislature with theDemocrats as the majority party in the House and the

Republicans the majority party in the Senate.The LRB was dominated by Republicans and drewdistricts to their partisan advantage for the 2002elections.


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Redistricting Games (P. 738)

The GOP gained control of the legislature as themajority party in both chambers following the 2002elections.

Under the influence of then U.S. House majority floorleader Tom Delay of Texas, the Republicans soughtto increase the number of Republican seats in theU.S. House from Texas.

A mid-decade redistricting of the U.S. House ofRepresentatives seats by the Texas Legislature,without being ordered to do so by a court, wasunprecedented in recent history.


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The Redistricting Plan and

the Court (P. 738)

After one regular session and three called specialsessions, the partisan gerrymandered plan wascomplete. It was immediately challenged in the

courts.Three issues for the U.S. Supreme Court:

1. Did mid-decade redistricting violate theconstitution?

2. Did the new districts disenfranchise minority votersby violating the Voting Rights Act (VRA)?

3. Were the district lines drawn in such a partisanmanner as to violate earlier U.S. Supreme Court

rulings?


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LULAC v. Perry(2006)

In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision inLULAC v. Perry which stated that mid-decaderedistricting was permissible and held that the Texas

districts were not drawn in an excessively partisanmanner so as to completely dilute Democraticvoters.

However, the high court did rule that some of thedistrict lines violated the VRA by reducing the

strength of Hispanic voters in one congressionaldistrict. The lines were redrawn to satisfy the court.


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Legislative Organization

(P. 744)Leadership:

Lieutenant Governor is the presiding officer of theTexas Senate

Elected in a statewide election to serve a four-yearterm, thus presiding over two legislative sessions

Powers include assigning members to standingcommittees, appointing committee chairs, andserving on the Legislative Budget Board (LBB).


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Legislative Organization

Leadership:

At the beginning of each legislative session, themembers of the Texas House of Representativesselect the Speaker of the House from itsmembership to be its presiding officer.

Although the election is by secret ballot, candidates

for the position of Speaker campaign for weeks

before the vote is taken.

Representatives sign pledge cards of support.


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Parties & Caucuses

Parties provide the basis of organization in the TexasLegislature.

Parties play a key role in the selection of committeechairs and committee members.

At their most basic level, parties function as a partycaucus - simply the members of a political party inthe legislature.

During several decades of Texas history, the majorityparty in the Texas Legislature was the DemocraticParty.


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Parties & Caucuses

Democratic Party discipline emerged once theRepublicans began to increase their numbers.

Today, both parties maintain party caucuses.

The Republican Party caucus also has floor whips,party members who try to encourage party disciplineamong Republican members of the legislature.

Compared to other states, party cohesion is relativelyweak in Texas.


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The Committee System in the

Legislature (P. 745) Standing committees - permanent, House & Senate

exclusive formal work groups that typically existacross sessions and across elections

House Appropriations Committee - every bill thatinvolves spending the states tax revenues must pass

through this committee, regardless of the subjectmatter of the bill

House Ways & Means Committee - handles everybill involving changes in the states tax laws, tax

rates, and types of taxes levied


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Legislature 82nd Legislative Session (P. 746)

36 standing committees in the House

19 standing committees in the Senate In the House, the Speaker retains the power to make

committee assignments. To reward supporters, theSpeaker may appoint chairs from the minority party.

In the Senate, the Lieutenant Governor retains thepower to make committee assignments. To rewardsupporters, the Lt. Governor may appoint chairs fromthe minority party.


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Legislature (P. 745)

Presiding over each standing committee is a

committee chair. Committee chairs are quitepowerful.

Standing committee functions:

Make formal changes to a bill referred to thecommittee in the form of amendments

May make formal line-by-line revision through a billwithout formal amendments called markup

Legislative oversight - committee review of policiesand decisions in the executive branch to ensurelegislative intent has been followed


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Legislature Joint committees - temporary work groups created by

the presiding officers of each chamber for a specialpurpose; also called select committees

Interim committees - legislative work groups createdin between sessions to address specific problemsand to research specific issues

Conference committees - as part of the legislative

process, empanelled to reconcile House and Senateversions of a bill


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The Legislative Process in

Texas (P. 752 - 755)

Bills are introduced by their sponsor.

Bills may be prefiled following the general election beforethe legislative session begins and may be introduced up to60 days after the legislative session convenes.

Budget bills must be introduced by the thirtieth day afterthe session opens.

Impact statements are required on the equalized publiceducation funding formula and on criminal justice policy--afeature unique to Texas.

There are also four types of resolutions (P. 752) All bills and resolutions are assigned a number by the

secretary of the Senate and chief clerk of the House. Thenumber represents the order in which a resolution or billwas introduced.


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Legislature In the House, the Speaker formally assigns bills to the

appropriate standing committee.

A few subcommittees exist in each chamber, made up

of committee members to provide a detailedexamination of a bill and report the bill back to thestanding committee.

After a series of public meetings, debates, mark-upsessions, and amendments, the standing committeetakes a final vote on a bill.

Bills that pass a majority vote in the standing committeereceive a favorable report and are ready to be sent tothe floor of the House for consideration.

C l d C itt & D b t


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Calendar Committees & Debate

(P. 755) The 150 member House of Representatives uses a device

called calendars to organize and prioritize bills,determining when a bill should be considered and howmuch time will be allowed for debate. A distinct differencebetween the Texas House & Senate is the use of theHouse Calendar.

The whole chamber engages in floor debate. Supporters and opponents may speak for or against the

bill.

The trick in both cases is gaining recognition from the

presiding officer of the chamber for the purposes ofaddressing the chamber.

Killer amendments - language added to a bill on anunrelated or controversial topic in an attempt to kill the bill


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The Senate Process

The 31 member Texas Senate goes through the

legislative process in much the same way. Bills areintroduced by their sponsors and referred to theappropriate standing committee; those bills receivinga favorable report are ready for consideration.

In both the House and Senate, a bill must receive

three readings in order to receive finalconsideration.

Blocking bill - a bill regularly introduced in the Senatein first position, to serve as a placeholder at the top of

the legislative calendar. Since bills must beconsidered in order, the blocking bill is traditionallyused as a mechanism for consideration of all bills bythe Senates requirement of a two-thirds vote to hearbills out of order.


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The Senate Process

The two-thirds vote requirement to consider a bill outof order requires 21 members of the Senate voting infavor. Thus, 11 members can block consideration.Therefore, it takes at least 16 members to pass a bill,but 21 to agree to consider a bill on the floor of the

Senate. This situation enables the minority party potentially

to threaten any bill because the minority party usuallyholds at least eleven seats in the Texas Senate.

The Lieutenant Governor wields tremendousinfluence over consideration of legislation in theTexas Senate.


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The Final Process

A bill must pass each chamber in identical form.

If legislation differs between the House and Senate,the presiding officers select members from their

respective chambers to serve on a conferencecommittee.

The conference committee report is sent to eachchamber for consideration. If the conference reportreceives a majority vote in each chamber, the bill issent to the governor for his/her consideration.

A gubernatorial veto is overridden by a two-thirdsvote in each chamber.


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Winners and Losers

The relatively weak position of parties, coupled withthe dominance of the Democratic Party, produced asystem that concentrated power in the hands of thepresiding officer.

Members of the legislature have acted as

independent brokers, swapping votes and cuttingdeals to influence legislation. Informal networkingand acting in the interest of constituents rather thanthe party are what matter.

Whether the emergence of the Republican majoritythe last few years will produce a party-centeredapproach to the legislature, similar to the U.S.Congress, remains to be seen.

ch 23 texas legislature

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