The Organization of

Legislative Bodies

Centralization 2: Leadership in

the Texas Legislature

The Tension

Two Organizing Principles of Legislative Bodies– Centralization

• Concentration of power into a few hands• Sometimes called the ‘oligarchic’ tendency• Focus on principal officers and leadership

– Decentralization• Diffusion of power across the entire body• Sometimes called the ‘democratic’ tendency• Focus on committees and subcommittees

Speaker of the Texas House• Mode of appointment

– Chosen by an election in the House– Pledge card system– Election officially blind to party

• Roles & Powers– Presides over House Proceedings

• Recognizes speakers on the House floor

• Determines points of order• Maintains House schedule• Formally schedules floor action

– Refers all bills to committees– Appointment power

• House members to ½ of all House committees

• House members to special committees

• House members to joint committees• All House committee chairmen

• The Texas Speaker enjoys more power relative to his House than the US Speaker

The Floor

• In the US Congress– Members of the House split into Congressional caucuses– Roles of Caucuses

• Choose principal officers

• Establish party legislative agenda for the session

• Assign members to steering committees

• In the Texas Legislature– History of single-party dominance – Members of the House do not formally split into caucuses– The Speaker’s “Team”: committee chairs and close allies on the

Floor

House Floor Leaders

• In the Texas Legislature– Analogous to Floor leaders in the US House

• Principal voice of their respective parties in the House• Develops legislative strategy• Communicates strategy with their party through House whips

– Less significant because of stronger roles of the TX Speaker

– Majority Leader typically a member of the Speaker’s “Team”

Whips• Both Congress and the Texas House of Representatives

– Encourages party unity – Communicates legislative agenda to party members– Communicates legislative strategy to party members– Manages legislative strategy– Encourages party members to

• attend or not attend floor debate• speak or not speak• yield their allotted speaking time to other house members• support bills consistent with the legislative agenda• oppose bills inconsistent with the legislative agenda

– Coordinates efforts by deputy whips on specific bills and resolutions

The Texas Senate• Dominated by the Presiding Officer• President of the Senate: The Lieutenant Governor

– Formal presidential powers• Appointment

– All Senate committees» Standing and special» Senate members of joint committees

– All Senate committee chairmen• Legislative Jurisdiction

– Refers all bills to Senate committees• Scheduling

– Texas constitution requires all Senate bills to be heard in order of appearance on presiding officer’s desk from the first day of regular session

– What happens before the first day?– Senators attempts to control schedule with blocking bills

• Recognition– Senators may not speak on record on the Senate Floor unless formally recognized by the

Presiding Officer

– Ex officio roles• Chairman of Legislative Budget Board

– Standing Joint Committee in the Texas Legislature– Primary source of the State’s Biennial Budget

• Appoints Sunset Advisory Commission– Recommends termination of state programs

• Member of the Texas Legislative Council• Successor to Texas Governor