LEGISLATIVE PROCESS I  February 23, 2016

OVERVIEW OF THE PROCESS  Introduction  Referral to Committee  Committee Action  Calendars Committee (House only)  Floor Action  Conference Committee Action (optional)  Action by the Governor Is this process similar to the legislative process in the U.S. Congress? Yes. It’s not exact, but the basic steps are the same.

2015 LEGISLATIVE ISSUES

Education Funding Public school supporters believe that the schools are under-funded. A number of school districts have sued the state over funding and a judge has ruled in their favor. The case is on appeal.

2015 LEGISLATIVE ISSUES School vouchers were a big issue in the 2015 legislative session. Lieutenant Governor Patrick is a major proponent of vouchers. They passed the Senate, but not the House.

2015 LEGISLATIVE ISSUES Water The legislature proposed a constitutional amendment to provide some funding for water development and conservation. The voters passed it in However, the amount of money is considered to be insufficient to meet the state’s future water needs.

2015 LEGISLATIVE ISSUES Transportation The legislature proposed a constitutional amendment to provide some money for transportation and voters passed it in The amount of money, however, is well short of the amount needed to address the problem. In 2015, the legislature added more money to highway needs by dedicating all of the motor vehicle sales tax and all of the gasoline tax to the highway fund.

2015 LEGISLATIVE ISSUES Medicaid Expansion Medicaid expansion, part of Affordable Care Act, would have added 1.2 million low-income uninsured Texans to the Medicaid program at no cost to the state, but the legislature rejected it in 2013 and again in These are Texas data. Single people making up to $15 K a year would be covered for free.

2015 LEGISLATIVE ISSUES Guns  The legislature passed a campus carry bill. It applies to universities in August 2016 and community colleges a year later.  The legislature also passed open carry for handguns.  Some members of the legislature waned to pass “constitutional carry,” which would dispense with the licensing requirement to carry a gun, but that effort failed.

2015 LEGISLATIVE ISSUES The legislature cut business taxes and reduced school property taxes for homeowners.

OTHER 2015 ISSUES  The legislature did not repeal the law that allows undocumented students who graduate from a Texas high school to pay in-state college tuition.  The legislature did not approve drug testing for people on welfare or receiving unemployment benefits.  The legislature provided funding to continue the presence of national guard troops along the border.  The legislature blocked local efforts to outlaw fracking in city limits.

BILL INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION Any member can introduce a bill, which is a proposed law, or a resolution, which is a legislative statement of opinion on a certain matter, such as a measure congratulating a Texas sports team for winning a championship. An amendment to the Texas Constitution takes the form of a joint resolution, which is a resolution that must be passed by a two-thirds vote of each chamber. State Representative Garnett Coleman from Houston used to be one of my students.

TIMING Members can begin filing bills in November, six weeks before the session begins. Members sometimes file early to get publicity for themselves and their causes. At least one member filed a bill to outlaw texting while driving before the 2015 session. The deadline for filing bills (unless the governor declares an emergency) is the 60 th day of the session. The legislature passed a measure to outlaw texting while driving in 2011, but Governor Perry vetoed it. The texting measure got nowhere in 2013 because legislators figured the governor would just veto it again. It also failed to pass in 2015.

LETTERS AND NUMBERS Once a bill is introduced, the secretary of the Senate or the chief clerk of the House assigns the measure a number, indicating the chamber of origin and order of introduction. HB 45, for example, indicates that the measure is the 45th bill introduced in the House during the session. SR 102 is the 102 nd resolution introduced in the Senate.

COMMITTEE STAGE

ASSIGNMENT TO COMMITTEE The lieutenant governor and the speaker, in consultation with the chamber parliamentarian, assign newly introduced measures to committee. Major pieces of legislation, without regard for subject matter, are assigned to the House Committee on State Affairs and the Senate Committee on State Affairs. The House Committee on State Affairs and Senate Committee on State Affairs are packed with members of the speaker and lieutenant governor’s leadership teams.

COMMITTEE ACTION Committees do the detailed work of the legislature, preparing reports, holding hearings, conducting markup, and voting whether to recommend the revised measure to the entire House or Senate for passage. Committee is a good place to kill a bill that may be popular because votes are generally not recorded. Moreover, members can vote to table or the chair can just delay action, leaving no fingerprints.

MARK UP Committees begin their consideration of proposed legislation by holding public hearings. After the hearings are complete, the committee meets for mark up, the process in which legislators go over a piece of legislation line-by-line to revise, amend, or rewrite it. Major legislation is almost always rewritten in committee, with the final product reflecting a compromise among the various groups and interests involved.

FISCAL NOTES The committee report includes the revised text of the measure, a detailed analysis of the bill, and a fiscal note, which is an analysis of a legislative measure indicating its cost to state government, if any.

QUIZ Where does mark-up take place? A) On the floor B) In committee C) In the calendars committee D) The governor does it. The correct answer is B.

WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED  What are the steps of the legislative process in Texas?  Who has authority to introduce a measure in the legislature?  When can measures be introduced?  What were some of the measures considered by the legislature in 2013?  What do the letters and numbers assigned to a bill signify?  What role do committees play in the legislative process?  What role does the Calendars Committee play in the House?