3. The Texas Legislature

Study

Chapter Summary

The Texas Legislature is a bicameral legislative body with two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The legislature meets in regular session every two years during odd numbered years. The legislature consists of 181 members with 150 members in the House and 31 members in the Senate. Following the Supreme Court decision in Reynolds v. Sims (1964), members in each chamber must represent relatively equal populations. Members of the House are elected to two-year terms and members of the Senate are elected to terms of four years. The presiding officer of the Texas House is the Speaker of the House who is selected at the opening of each session by a majority vote of the members. The presiding officer of the Texas Senate is the Lieutenant Governor elected in a statewide election to serve a four-year term.

Most of the work in the Texas Legislature is done in the committee system where standing committees in each chamber are assigned pieces of legislation germane to their jurisdiction. This allows the legislature to divide legislation by subject areas and work more efficiently under the constitutional mandate that regular sessions be limited to 140 days. Because so many bills are introduced and up for consideration, legislation reported favorably out of committee is referred to one of the calendar committees, which organize and prioritize legislation scheduled for debate. The House limits debate among members while the Senate has unlimited debate subject to the rules governing a filibuster. As part of the legislative process in Texas, each chamber must pass a bill after three required readings. Bills must be identical to one another or a conference committee is impaneled to reconcile House and Senate versions of the bill.

Texas politics, long dominated by the Democratic Party, has been transformed by two-party competition. Today, the Republican Party holds all of the major statewide offices and has held majority control of both chambers since 2003. This has led to more partisan acrimony than experienced during most of Texas's history and threatens longstanding institutional traditions in legislative politics.

Review questions

1. How does Texas's size affect the representative nature of the legislature?
   



2. To what extent does Texas have a citizen legislature?
   



3. What limits are placed on the Texas Legislature?
   



4. Who is included in the leadership structure in the Texas Legislature?
   



5. What are the obstacles to a bill becoming a law?