The Legislature in the Texas government is responsible for the bills, resolutions, and policies of the state. The members of the Senate and House of Representatives must represent their constituencies and their interests when working on legislation, while also considering partisan goals and ideas. The Texas Legislature is a complex and important part of the government that includes policy making and committees to create laws for the state. The Texas Legislature is bicameral, meaning there are two chambers. These two chambers are the Texas Senate, lead by the lieutenant governor, and the Texas House of
Representatives, lead by the speaker. Bicameralism affects the passage of a bill by having it “voted on by two deliberative bodies representing different constituencies” (Champagne & Harpham, 2015, p. 202). This often creates conflict and results in drastic changes to a bill as it moves to and from each chamber, or means that a bill can be killed as it passes from the House to the Senate, or vice versa. This aspect of the Texas Legislature also means the author of a bill can accept or reject amendments to their bill, and makes it easy for members to retaliate against ach other for not cooperating on specific pieces of legislation.
The members of the bicameral House and the Senate must meet specific requirements in order to be elected. To be eligible for both they must be a U. S. citizen, qualified voter, and member of their specific district for one year at the minimum, but in order to qualify for the Senate they must also be age 26 or older and a resident of Texas for at least five years; for the House, one must be age 21 or older and a resident of Texas for no less than two years. Regular Sessions are “held for 140 days in odd-numbered years,” and are used to analyze the incredible mount of resolutions and bills the legislature must vote on (2015, p. 04). These sessions are biennial, which means that “unless there are special sessions, [the Texas legislature] meets once every two years and is a part-time body” (2015, p. 229). In these sessions the members of the legislature work on and vote for local bills, special bills, general bills, concurrent resolutions, joint resolutions, and simple resolutions. In order for any of the bills mentioned to become a law, they must go through a lengthy process. The steps in this process are introduction, referral, consideration by standing committee, floor action, onference committee, and action by the governor.
There are many committees in Texas that are centered around specific goals and interests, but the two directly involved with the passing of a bill are most important for the Texas Legislature. Standing committees are permanent and have several functions, such as amending or writing a bill, and play a huge part in the process of passing a bill into a law. The other important committee is the conference committee, which takes a bill and makes it identical for the House and the Senate through compromise so it can be passed on to the governor for consideration.
Once the governor receives a bill, he or she can sign or veto a bill, thus ending the process, or sending the bill back to possibly be overridden by one of the two chambers and signed into law through a vote. The Texas Legislature is vital to the government of Texas, and though the members do not meet often, when they do they must work on and consider thousands of bills. The political culture of Texas, which is more traditionalistic-individualistic, has certainly affected the passage of bills in the state.
Often times bills defying traditional beliefs have been rejected, while those emphasizing individualism and ut in order to qualify for the Senate they must also be age 26 or older and a resident of Texas for at least five years; for the House, one must be age 21 or older and a resident of Texas for no less than two years. Regular Sessions are “held for 140 days in odd-numbered years,” and are used to analyze the incredible amount of resolutions and bills the legislature must vote on (2015, p. 204).
These sessions are biennial, which means that “unless there are special sessions, [the Texas legislature] meets once every two years and is a part-time body” (2015, p. 229). In these sessions the members of the legislature work on and vote or local bills, special bills, general bills, concurrent resolutions, joint resolutions, and simple resolutions. In order for any of the bills mentioned to become a law, they must go through a lengthy process. The steps in this process are introduction, referral, consideration by standing committee, floor action, conference committee, and action by the governor.
There are many committees in Texas that are centered around specific goals and interests, but the two directly involved with the passing of a bill are most important for the Texas Legislature. Standing committees are permanent and have several unctions, such as amending or writing a bill, and play a huge part in the process of passing a bill into a law. The other important committee is the conference committee, which takes a bill and makes it identical for the House and the Senate through compromise so it can be passed on to the governor for consideration.
Once the governor receives a bill, he or she can sign or veto a bill, thus ending the process, or sending the bill back to possibly be overridden by one of the two chambers and signed into law through a vote. The Texas Legislature is vital to the government of Texas, and though the members do not eet often, when they do they must work on and consider thousands of bills. The political culture of Texas, which is more traditionalistic-individualistic, has certainly affected the passage of bills in the state. Often times bills defying traditional beliefs have been rejected, while those emphasizing individualism and business have passed.
The Texas Legislature is responsible for not only answering to their constituents, but also to the party they align themselves with. Passing legislation is an important job and permanently affects the laws of Texas and how people live. Texas Executive In the Texas Constitution of 1876, the powers of the governor were greatly decreased. As a direct reaction to former Texas Governor Edmund Davis and his extensive authority and corruption, Texans decided to prevent a governor from ever holding that much power again.
In order to ensure that Texas saw no governor like Davis again, the powers of the governor were restricted and split up into several officeholders. The Executive branch in Texas is separated into a plural executive with multiple people which keeps the state running and enforces laws and regulations. The plural executive is “an xecutive branch in which power is fragmented because the election of statewide officeholders is independent of the election of the governor” (Champagne & Harpham, 2015, p. 254). Each of the officeholders of the plural executive have different and separate jobs from the governor.
The purpose of these separate offices is to prevent the governor from having too much power. They all have separate goals, ideas, and affiliations. The members of the plural executive can work together, or work individually with their own purposes and plans. There are seven offices that make up the plural executive, ncluding “the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller of public accounts, commissioner of the General Land Office[] commissioner of agriculture,” and the secretary of state (2015, p. 54). The governor in Texas has very little powers, especially when compared to governors in other states. The powers governors do have in Texas are an appointment power, a patronage power, the power to submit an executive budget, a message power, the power to veto legislation through the uses of a post-adjournment veto and a line-item veto, and the power to call special sessions. The governor may also be impeached.
