Should the Texas state legislature meet annually instead of biennially? Only three (3) other states (Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota) still have biennial legislatures. Look up at least two (2) webs
State Legislatures
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), American satirist, called state legislatures “barnyard governments.” Members were generally from rural areas and spent only the brief winter months actually making law. Since Mencken wrote, state legislatures have become more professional.
State legislatures deal with issues under their reserved powers granted by the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Legislators in a representative democracy speak for us and make laws. And, we can vote them out if they do not serve us. They are the primary constitutional policymakers for the states.
Factors affecting people’s voting for legislators include: partisanship and ideology, social group membership, and attitudes on specific issues. People also tend to reelect the same people. Incumbents, legislators already in office, are reelected about 90 percent of the time because they have name recognition, more money, and more experience in campaigning. Many incumbents run unopposed or against weak challengers.
In the U.S. Congress, each state has two Senators but, in the U.S. House of Representatives, the number of representatives a state has depends on its population. For the U.S. House and for state legislatures, the state and its population are divided into districts; this is apportionment.
Reapportionment and redistricting of the U.S. House and state legislative districts occurs every ten years after each U.S. census. State legislatures, according to the U.S. Constitution, must draw both district lines for the U.S. House of Representatives and state legislature. In the states, both state senate districts and state house districts must have equal numbers of people in each.
Malapportionment is the drawing of districts unequal in population size. State legislatures were once dominated by rural areas. At one time Florida, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Tennessee districts allowed less than 30 percent of the population to elect the majority of legislators. Voting districts were drawn bolster representation of rural areas. As cities grew, the legislatures, dominated by rural legislators, refused to redraw the lines to reflect shifting populations. Urban area concerns were ignored.
In Colegrove v. Green (1946), the Cook County (Chicago) district had 914,000 people while a southern Illinois county had only 112,000 people. The southern county had almost 9 times the political voice that Cook County did. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene. The Supreme Court dealt with this issue again in Baker v. Carr (1962), a Tennessee case. This time, the Supreme Court said that redistricting questions could be taken to court.
Wesberry v. Sanders (1964), two years later, ruled that state legislatures must draw U.S. House districts so that the population was equal in each district. In Reynolds v. Sims (1964), the Court decided decided that state legislative districts had to be equal in size. This principle applies to both state houses and state senates.
Gerrymandering is also a concern in how state legislatures draw districts. Gerrymandering is the drawing of districts so that certain groups have less representation. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that gerrymandering to discriminate against minorities is unconstitutional (Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 1960). However, gerrymandering on the basis of political party is generally constitutional.
Characteristics of legislators: Legislators are better educated and have higher-incomes than the people in their districts. Most are white and male. Most are from occupations, like law or business that allow contact with the public, reward political influence, and allow taking time off. Most state legislators are part-time amateurs (citizen legislators) and do not depend on their salary for their income.
WHAT DO STATE LEGISLATORS DO?
Lawmaking: Legislators introduce thousands of bills (the average legislative session considers over 4,000) but few of these bills pass (about 1,000).
Representation: Legislators represent the interests of their constituents in the district.
Constituency service: Legislators perform constituency work (casework). They help individuals in their district with issues and problems.
Oversight: Legislators supervise the carrying out of laws. In 1976 Colorado passed a sunset law in which all programs and agencies are periodically reviewed by the legislature and disbanded/changed if the legislative purpose was not met. Other states have passed similar laws.
In legislatures, committees do most of the work:
Standing committees are "permanent" and where most legislative work is done. Standing committees in the Texas legislature are fairly typical: e.g., agriculture, criminal justice, energy, human services, etc.
Special or select committees may be created for specific issues.
The most important type of special or select committees is a conference committee, made up of members from both houses. It resolves differences when the house and senate pass non-identical bills on the same topic.
The legislative process is a “legislative obstacle course.” (see Figure 7-1). There are many points at which an idea can be defeated. Bills are first introduced by a legislator; bills are then assigned to standing committees, which may hold hearings, amend bills, or take no action at all.
If the bill passes the committee, it moves to the entire chamber for debate, adding any amendments, and a vote. If passed by the entire chamber, the bill then moves to the other chamber (similar bills may be introduced in both chambers at the same time). If both chambers pass the bill, but in different forms, then a conference committee is formed to resolve differences between. The conference report is then voted on by both chambers. If passed, the bill goes to the governor to be signed into law (or to be vetoed).
Legislative professionalism: State legislatures vary in their professionalism. Generally, more professional legislatures are those with lengthy, annual sessions, high pay, large staffs and research and information resources. Less professional, amateur legislatures are those that lack some or all of these.
The Texas legislature is one of seven state legislatures that only meet every other year, for 140 days (or biennially). Members earn less than $10, 000 per session, plus up to about $21,000 in expenses. In Texas, legislators are part-time. California legislators make much more money, and they are full-time. The Texas legislature does have fairly large staffs and research assistance. So the Texas legislature can be described as a “hybrid” legislature that has some aspects of legislative professionalism but lacks others.
Legislative Structure: All states except Nebraska have bicameral legislatures (two houses). Size ranges from 40 to 400 in lower chambers; about 100 members is typical. States senates are smaller; usually around 50 members. Texas has 150 house members and 31 senators. Members are elected for 2-year terms in the House and 4-year terms in the Senate.
Leadership: The speaker is the presiding officer of the house in all states, including Texas, and is always a member of the majority party. In Texas the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives has the constitutional powers of maintaining order during debate by the entire House, recognizing legislators wanting to speak, and ruling on procedural questions; also the Speaker must sign all bills and joint resolutions. House Rules also allow the Speaker to assign bills to committees and make committee appointments.
In most states, the lieutenant governor is primarily a ceremonial post. In other states, notably Texas, the Lieutenant Governor is the presiding officer of the Senate who has powers similar to those of the Speaker. Committee chairpersons are almost always members of the majority party; in some states, including Texas, members of the minority party may chair committees.
Terms and Ideas
Incumbent / incumbency factor
Reapportionment / redistricting
Apportionment / malapportionment
Baker v. Carr (1962) / Wesberry v. Sanders (1964) / Reynolds v. Sims (1964)
Gerrymandering
Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960)
Committees: standing, special (select), conference
Legislative obstacle course-bill passage
Sunset laws
Lawmaking
Representation
Constituency service (casework)
Oversight
Legislative professionalism
