Texas Legislature Composition o House o Senate 150 members serving 2 year term 31 members serving 4 year terms Half the Senate goes up for election every 2 years o Exception after reapportionment the whole Senate goes up o Proportion of representation for election Relatively small number of representatives per Texan To run for the Texas House one must be at least 21 years old To run for the Texas Senate one must be at least 26 years old Legislative Districts o All districts are single member o Reapportionment follows every Federal census Unique Legislative Redistricting Board Created 1948 Authority to redistrict if the legislature fails to do so Includes most of the executive officers Most districts are not competitive Legislative sessions o Meet every 2 years for 140 days o At the end of the session the legislature must adjourn o Only the governor can call special legislature sessions on topics of his choosing o If governor vetoes a bill after the legislature has adjourned it cannot be overturned Lieutenant Governor o Directly elected by state voters o Cannot vote except in case of a tie in the state Senate o Formal powers Interprets rule Appoints chairs and members of all Senate committees including Conference Committees Serves as the presiding officer of the Senate Refers all bills to committees o Extra legislative powers Appoint members of other state boards like Legislative Budget Board Legislative Procedures o unique to Texas 60th day is very important Before 60th day of session bill can pass the House and Senate with a simple majority vote After 60th day bills in each chamber require 4 5 majority to be heard Technically needs to be introduced in order but rarely happens Congress The Constitution and the Legislative Branch o Article 1 of the Constitution Longest article o Primary purpose of branch is to make laws Taxing and spending Immigration and naturalization Foreign trade Defense spending budget comes out every 2 years o Shared powers With executive Declare war o Only happened 5 times in US history because most are done with executive order o Only requires majority vote Approve foreign treaties o 2 3 vote in favor Confirm Executive appointments to the Executive and Judicial Branches o 2 3 vote in favor With Judicial Set size of the courts Set court jurisdiction Remove judges in case of bad behaviors o Different modes of election in the Constitution House elected by popular vote from their district Senate were appointed by State Legislature Changed during the Progressive Era period of Democratic reforms in 1890 1920 o Changed to popular vote from state residents with passage of 17th amendment in 1913 o Term limits House is 2 years Senate is 6 years o Requirements House Senate 25 years old 7 year US citizenship 30 years old 9 year US citizenship Career change in Congressional composition o 19th century a majority of Congress only served one term Pay was low and travel to DC was hard Federal government was less important o By 1950s serving Congress became a career Between 1863 1969 the proportion of 1st termers in House fell from 58 to 8 2 views of Representation Incumbency advantage o Trustee o Delegate one who decides what is in the best interest of the electorate one who acts in the line with the opinions of the electorate a person who already holds elected office o Incumbent o Constituency o To benefit one s constituency a member of Congress can use responding to individual s requests people residing on elected official s district Service strategy Franking privilege copy of signature instead of stamp Pork barrel spending member s district send materials to constituents free of charge using a frank federal funds deployed for projects in a Congressional Redistricting and Congressional Elections o A majority of districts are not competitive Only about 75 of 435 are competitive could go either way in election o Redistricting redrawing the boundaries for House election districts Handled primarily by state legislatures redrawing districts so they favor the party in charge of the state o Reapportionment can change the shape and makeup of the Congressional districts o Disruptive political events o Gerrymandering legislature Threats to Incumbency Advantage War Affordable Care Act o Scandals Anthony Weiner The Speaker of the House o Voted into place by members of the majority party of the House o Chooses chairperson and majority members of the House Rules Committee Control scheduling of bills o Assigns bills to committees o Appoints members to joint committees House majority leader and whip o Majority leader is second in command o Whip informs party members of scheduled votes o Both parties have both of them Senate Leadership o Presiding officer is the Vice President of the US o President pro tempore serves in VP place if need be o Senate majority leader schedules business of the Senate in consolation with the minority leader o Minority party also has whip and leader Congressional committees o Standing committees permanent committees with specific legislative responsibilities Rules Committee and Appropriations Committee o Select committees serve designated areas but do not draft legislation Homeland Security and Intelligence o Joint committees composed of members of both houses to perform advisory functions Overseeing the Library of Congress o Conference committees to work out differences between House and Senate version of bills formed from members of both chambers of both chambers Case by case basis Legislation Process Bill proposed legislative at o can only be proposed by a member of Congress o less than 10 of bills refereed to a committee make it to the floor o if a bill has merit it goes to subcommittee hearings if retains merit then goes to full committee o in full committee more hearings members vote whether it should go to the floor o in both committee steps the bill undergoes mark ups contents of the bill are changed exception discharge petition if signed by a majority of the House members the stalled bill goes to the floor o Rules committee determines when vote happens how long it lasts Two types of rules Open rule Closed rule amendments or changes are permitted amendments or changes are forbidden o Bill passes House then majority leader of the Senate schedules No rules for debate in the Senate lengthy speeches intended to prevent vote from being o exception cloture requiring 3 5 majority this limits debate Debate is unlimited Filibuster taken up Riders to 30 hours