Legislative Process II GOVT 2306, Module 7

Floor Action

House Calendars Committee In the House, measures recommended favorably by a standing committee go to the Calendars Committee for assignment to a House calendar, which sets the order of priority for considering legislation. Emergency Calendar Major State Calendar Constitutional Amendment Calendar General State Calendar Local, Consent, and Resolutions Calendar Resolutions Calendar Congratulatory and Memorial Resolutions Calendar The Speaker stacks the Calendars Committee with members of his leadership team.

Timing is Everything The House calendar system becomes more important as a legislative session wears on. During the early months of a session, relatively few bills pass committee for assignment to a calendar and the House typically considers every measure before ending its legislative day. Toward the end of the session, however, the legislative pace quickens and the number of measures on the calendar grows. By the end of the session, measures placed on low-priority calendars risk failure for lack of action. The floor of the House is a physical place, pictured above. The phrase “the floor” refers to the entire body acting as a whole.

Getting to the Floor in the Senate The Texas Senate does not have a Calendars Committee. Instead, the custom in the Texas Senate is to require a super majority vote of the entire membership to consider legislation on the floor. (A super majority is a proportion greater than 50 percent plus one.)

Blocking Bill Although official Senate rules stipulate that bills emerging from committee must be considered on the floor in the order in which they are received from committee, the official procedure is almost never followed. The first bill reported out of committee at the beginning of a session is invariably a "blocking bill," introduced not to be passed but to rest atop the Senate calendar, preventing consideration of other measures. In recent session, the blocking bill has been a measure proposing the creation of a county park beautification and improvement program.

Suspending the Rules With the blocking bill firmly in place, the lieutenant governor and the leadership team decide which bills to consider on the floor and the order in which to consider them. By prearrangement, the lieutenant governor recognizes a particular senator who then moves that the rules be suspended to allow consideration by the full Senate of a particular bill.

Demise of the Two-Thirds Rule For decades, the Senate procedure for bringing bills to the floor required a two-thirds vote, 21 of 31 votes. In 2015, however, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and the Republican reduced the number of votes required to bring measures to the floor from 21 to 19, allowing the chamber’s 20 Republicans to advance bills without Democratic support. Dan Patrick has long been an opponent of the two-thirds rule.

Floor Debate

Floor Debate in the House Once a bill reaches the floor of either chamber, members debate its merits and perhaps propose amendments. Because Texas House rules limit debate, the measure eventually comes to a vote unless the session ends before action can be taken.

Floor Debate in the Senate In the Senate, members may speak as long as they please, and occasionally senators attempt to defeat a bill through prolonged debate, a practice known as a filibuster. However, because debate can be ended by majority vote, the filibuster is not as potent a weapon in the Texas Senate as it is in the U.S. Senate, where 60 of 100 votes are needed to shut off debate. Representative Senfronia Thompson. What is she doing and why is she doing it?

Emotional Symbols of the Abortion Debate

Wendy Davis and the Filibuster The only time a filibuster can be effective in the Texas Senate is near the end of the session, right before a deadline for passing legislation, when an individual senator can literally run out the clock. Wendy Davis, D, Fort Worth, use an 11-hour filibuster at the end of the 2013 regular session to block an anti-abortion measure from coming to a vote. The filibuster made Davis a hero to Democrats nationwide, but the measure she talked so long to defeat in the regular session was passed in a special session.

Deadlines, We Have Deadlines Both the Texas Senate and Texas House set deadlines for the consideration of measures several days in advance of the constitutional end of the session. Senate rules declare that no bill can be considered unless it is reported from committee at least 15 days before final adjournment. In addition, no votes can be taken on the last day of the session except to correct errors. The House has comparable rules.

Vote for Final Passage Ordinary legislation passes the Texas House and Texas Senate by majority vote of those members present and voting. If all 150 House members participate, 76 votes constitute a majority. In the Senate, 16 of 31 senators are a majority if every senator participates. Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds vote of each chamber. Legislators signal one another how to vote on amendments and various motions. One finger is yes; two fingers means no.

Conference Committees

Going to Conference A measure has not cleared the legislature until it has passed both the Texas House and the Texas Senate in identical form during the same legislative session. If the two chambers cannot agree on the details of legislation, they may decide to create a conference committee. Sen. Royce West, D., Dallas

Conference Committees Are Special Committees A conference committee is a special committee created to negotiate differences on similar pieces of legislation passed by the House and Senate. Separate conference committees are formed to deal with each bill in dispute. In Texas, conference committees include five members from each chamber, appointed by the presiding officers. A majority of conference members from each house must concur before the conference committee has finished its work.

One Last Vote Once conference committee members have reached an agreement, the conference committee returns it to the floors of the Texas House and the Texas Senate for another vote. Each chamber has the option of voting the legislation up or down or returning it to the conference committee for further negotiation. The House and Senate may not amend the measure at this point; rather, legislators must accept or reject the piece of legislation in its entirety. The legislature passes only a fraction of the measures introduced during a session. In 2013, the legislature passed less than a quarter of the measures introduced. Many of the measures that passed were local bills or other non-controversial pieces of legislation.

Quiz Wendy Davis was most closely associated with which of the following legislative procedures? Two-thirds rule Conference committee Filibuster Blocking bill The answer is C.

Action by the Governor

Governor Has Three Choices Do nothing and the bill becomes law Sign the bill into law Veto the bill, subject to an override by two-thirds vote of both houses (assuming the legislature is still in session) In 2013, Governor Perry vetoed 26 bills.

Line-item veto For appropriation bills, the governor has the line-item veto, which is the power of the governor to veto sections or items of an appropriation bill while signing the remainder of the bill into law. The governor typically cuts well less than 1 percent of total spending from the budget.

Overriding the Veto If the legislature is still in session, it can override the governor's veto by a two-thirds vote of each chamber and the bill becomes law despite the governor's opposition. It’s been 40 years since a veto was overridden.

When Laws Take Effect Laws take effect at different times. The Texas Constitution declares that all laws except the appropriations bill go into effect 90 days after the legislature adjourns unless the legislature by a two-thirds vote designates another date. The appropriations bill takes effect on September 1, the beginning of the state budget year. Sometimes the legislature specifies that a measure take effect immediately upon signature of the governor. At other times the legislature directs that legislation go into effect on September 1.

What You Have Learned How do bills reach the floor of the Texas House and Texas Senate? What is the two-thirds rule in the Senate? What is the role of conference committees in the legislative process? What options does the governor have for dealing with a bill? What is the line-item veto? How are vetoes overridden? When do laws take effect?