Allocated as a prime in the separation of powers, the Texas Legislature conducts the general activity of state government. The Legislature’s dominant purpose is to pass laws that supply good standing economic, health, education, welfare and environment to the residents in Texas. In that manor, the Legislature affects the lives of the Texan citizens’ daily, and without it there would be a distinctive imbalance of power. The Texas Legislature is incomparably one of the most significant representative institutions in the state, and it is deeply rooted in Texas Government as a bold principle of maintaining order. The origin of the Legislature of Texas was injected formally from that of the United States Constitution and was activated and influenced …show more content…
by Texas’s regional politics. In 1845 the official Texas Constitution was produced and framed that adopted several qualities from the United States Constitution as was conditioned. Stated in Janice C. May’s article, Government, “..whose source of authority was the people (popular sovereignty), guarantees of individual rights, a republican form of government, and separation of powers.” (May 1). The mechanisms of both documents are heavily based on the ideology of popular sovereignty, which ultimately grants the people supreme power and a voice to be heard to govern. This is where the origin of Texas Legislature is scripted in writing that it’s role is to enact laws that are mandatory for the protection of the citizens, alike how the federal Legislature was developed. The Legislature is the political assurance for the people that all of its authority can never be refused by the state constitution or federal constitution. Apart from the state of Nebraska, the Texas format of the political powers is closely related amongst the rest of the nation. In the Texas Constitution the foundation of the Legislature is structured on a bicameral scale. Essentially, bicameral is interpreted by being encompassed of two houses or chambers of legislative assembly. Those chambers are identified as the Texas House of Representatives along with the Texas Senate. The House of Representatives is composed of one hundred and fifty members as opposed to Senators where there are only thirty-one. House members serve for two years, while the Senators serve in a total of four years. As calculated by Anthony Champagne in the textbook, Governing Texas, “Each member of the Texas House represents approximately 168,000 people. Each senator represents over 811,000 constituents.” (Champagne 202). This illustrates how drastic of the scale a Senator symbolizes in comparison to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Although it is common to inherit a bicameral system, since there are two houses present, it does embark some conflict when a decision is coming into play. If a member refuses to cooperate on a coveted legislation, then bicameralism permits the other members of the legislative body to counterattack. This way it is acceptable to override the other body for action is perceived to be a contribution to the common good. So what time periods do these chamber members collaborate and meet?
There’s a bold distinction of two different types of session where the meetings are held. The first would be classified as the more frequent, which would be regular sessions. Every odd-number years the Texas Constitution states that it is mandatory for the legislature to be held at the length of one hundred and forty days. These procedures originations back to the beginning of the nineteenth century and preserved ever since. The rationale behind these shorted and chopped periods of activity is projected as a space barrier so that the powers of the legislature are in fact limited. Although the Legislature is a great deal, these restrictions make it possible to retain balance politically. As assumed, the workload within the one hundred and forty days of office is taxing, as thousands of bills are introduced and only a fraction are passed. In the scenario that legislature fails to complete their assignments before the end of the period, or any other issue emerges, the government has every claim to announce a special session. These sessions are never prolonged more than a handful of thirty days, but there isn’t a set limit of restriction of the quantity of special session the government can broadcast. However, when the government casts a special session this supplies the governor with full authority over what bills to sign or issues addressed. At this stage governors can get clever and add a special session …show more content…
agenda to the floor of the legislator in exchange for a vote. An important agency that works beneath the Legislature Branch is the Texas Legislative Council.
The duties and responsibilities carried by this council is explained further by Laurie E. Jasinski, Texas Legislative Council, “ The council's responsibilities include investigating state agencies, conducting studies for the legislative branch of state government, recommending pieces of legislation to the legislature and assisting it with legislative drafts, and providing data processing to legislative members and committees.” (Jasinski 1). Ultimately the council’s agenda is to embody an information source to the Texas Legislative directly, by that of publishing, researching and document distributing. An obstacle on which this organization faces is the frequent alterations conducted of the statues. This council was formally established by a legislative dated back in 1949. Another council of such magnitude to the Legislature is the Joint Legislative Council. This association was established as a tangent from the Woman’s Suffrage movement where, as implied, was devoted to advance women’s interest in Texas to the state legislature. For five legislative sessions, this council brewed an immense amount on controversy, as the assertion for women’s rights was obscene to the male members of both the Senate and House of Representatives. On my cases this movement wasn’t proven to be successful in it’s early time, but there appeared to be a turning point when spokeswoman Jessie Daniel
Amesqv stepped in. In the early 1920’s Amesqv made the addition to the council’s recommendations of a funding of health programs for mothers and infants during a prison survey. Emma Jackson reveals the reaction of the state to Amesqv’s address, “Subsequently, information and pressure from Texas women persuaded the state Democratic party to adopt both recommendations in its 1922 campaign platform.” (Jackson 2). There are an abundant amount of councils that all play a minor puzzle pieces into the broad branch of the Legislature, each benefiting and shaping the body into what it is currently. A collective agenda that all portions of the separation of powers intertwine and create is morphing a bill into a federal law. When a bill is received it is the responsibility of the legislature exclusively to introduce the bill. Mercy from the Texas Medical Association emphasizes the process of the introduction, “To introduce a bill in the House of Representatives, a state representative must first submit the required number of copies of the bill for filing to the chief clerk of the house, who sequentially numbers each document according to the order in which it is received.” (Mercy 3). After a sixty-day deadline for all introduction bills the governor needs fourth-fifths of the members votes. The process would be alike if the bill was introduced to the Senate instead. The next step in the legislative process would be that of a referral of the bill, where it undergoes a cold reading and from there the hearing house decides if they want to permit the bill to stay active. All bills are submitted to a standing committee, where a good portion is rejected from there. If the bill somehow survives the committee, then it will be amended with some modifications added to the bill. Then comes by the floor action that marks the fourth step of the legislative process. This is where each member of the House enters to debate over the bill, where the members conduct a couple more hearings and vote. If the bill is approved by one house, than it must repeat this process once again in the other, since Texas is a bicameral legislation. If each house is indifferent about the bill, then it is process to the Conference Committee where they make a final report of the bill and present it to both chambers as they come to terms with a final decision. Then finally the document is presented to the Governor where he can sign the bill as a law or they have the option to veto it. In doing this it offers the Legislation body a chance to override this veto by a two-thirds vote. What precisely does the Texas Legislature itself dictate? Janice May on another article of hers, Texas Legislature, explains the distinction on the two operations of the legislature,“ The statehood constitution vested in the legislature "legislative" or lawmaking powers and a few non-legislative powers such as impeaching and removing executive and judicial officers, electing the governor in the event of a tie and deciding certain contested elections, approving gubernatorial appointments, and proposing constitutional amendments (the constituent power). (May 4). Notice how May doesn’t include anything that relates to passing bills as a category listed for the non-legislative powers. This is because there is a direct boundary that splits which side of the legislature can determine. Although there are visible separate activities amongst the legislative and non-legislative powers, there is some common ground on which they do intertwine with one another. Legislators take upon the invitation to work for constitutes’ by performing legislative tasks such as casting votes for a solution or presenting bills. They also are of service to non-legislative activities like writing recommendation letters, giving a speech or arranging meetings. To elaborate, non-legislative powers consists of electoral powers: where they count returns in the duration of elections, investigated powers, direct and supervisory powers: where they have some form of strain on the executive branch, judicial power: where legislators have the ability to impeach members of the Senate, and lastly impeachment: this action is shadowing the judicial power, where after the member is being impeached there are trials held at the Senate to determine the individual’s fate. The legislative powers are slightly more simplistic on the content that they operate upon. As mentioned before, the legislative powers have the authority over how a bill is being handled. There are three different types of bills, local: where the bill only affects a certain district or region, special: is a form of exception that allow a business or company free of certain ties from the state law and general: in this case the bill would affect the general public from the state. Legislative powers also conduct resolutions, which is essentially a formal opinion from the legislature that brings closure to a topic or issue. There are a handful of scenarios on how a solution is provided, such as being approved by both the houses at once, proposed and ratified from one to the other or reversed. Perhaps the best practice in bettering the Texas Legislature is to analyze the past and indicated what could have been managed differently the would of benefited the majority.
It was a remarkable coup Texas least three of their own to serve as an important adviser in the cabinet of Wilson. Because of one-party rule in the state, members of parliament from southern Texas and can build seniority and gain positions of power simply by being elected and reelected in a noncompetitive political environment. During Wilson, the state lost power in the national government by the establishment of the Federal Reserve system and some constitutional amendment allowed the direct election of senators, Range Women's right to vote, and allowing for a federal income tax was
The Texas constitution of 1876 is made up of 18 sections including the preamble, each section covering a different aspect of governing decisions and how they should be handled including defining what the powers of the government actually are, managing taxes and revenue, public land and titles, and the different departments of the government branches. It is the sixth constitution that has fallen under Texas since independence in 1836. The constitution was thought of by the 1875 Texas constitutional convention and h...
The Constitution of the United States and the Texas Constitution share many similarities. They also have important differences due to different attitudes about what the role of government should be. It is important to know the limits of the state’s power as it can help us better understand our role as a Texas citizen.
The people of Texas are diverse and carry their “big can-do attitudes and accents” (Pearson); making Texas a bigger than life state. The political culture of Texas is impacted by two different subgroups of individualistic and traditionalistic characteristics. The combination of traditionalism and individualism has had a huge impact on the state and Texas’ seven different constitutions. The shift in power between 1827 and 1876 has impacted the political diversity Texas has today. Looking at the specifics of these subcultures, the traditionalists believe government should benefit the wealthy and powerful, and that government services must be limited.
Texas is an intricate state with deep roots embedded in limited government authority. Almost all, Texans, favor the limited government between citizens and state. The two most important cultures in Texas are individualistic and traditionalistic culture. Individualistic views are summoned by limited government and that politics are the root of malicious acts, and is usually responded with negative reactions from the community. The individualistic cultures’ vision is egotistical for ones self-interest. The individualistic culture is viewed as priority in private independent business rather that those of the community as a whole. Unlike individualistic views, traditionalistic culture is motioned by conservatism. This cultures vision is supported by the common wealth of society’s privileged. Its beliefs are usually of distrust in its bureaucracy. Traditionalistic culture maintains an obligation to its family hierarchy. The traditionalistic subculture has a lower voting turn out rate compared to the opposition. These distinctive cultures were bestowed upon Texans in the 1800’s, when Texas was changing into a diverse and demographically society. Individualistic and traditionalistic cultures are the outline of ideology and certainty to the way Texas government is administrated. This has a huge impact on the way the Texas structures its government and why people support such a structure. And Texas is viewed as both subcultures.
Opposition to Texas' admission to the United States was particularly strong in the North during this period. If a challenge to the constitutionality of the move could have been made successfully at that time, there is little doubt that the leaders of the opposition would have instituted such a suit in the Supreme Court.
In my analysis of the Texas Constitution I will assess the three branches of our State Government, the Legislative Branch, Executive Branch and finally the Judicial Branch. Our State Government resembles our National Government in various ways but also in very different ways which we will review in this essay. I will identify a handful of criticisms and problems associated with the provisions in each of these branches of our State Government and identify suggested reforms that many feel are needed.
The United States Constitution is one of the most used documents in American History, as it is the foundation of American democracy. Within the constitution, the tenth amendment grants, “…The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Thus, Texas also has a Constitution, which outlines important powers within the state, itself. Both of these documents are extremely important to understand together, but to also understand their differences. Some examples of the differences between the Texas State Constitution and the United States Constitution include, the powers of the President and the Governor, the varying Legislative sessions,
Every citizen, as incumbent citizens within the State of Texas, has certain responsibilities and undertakings to consider. Included in such considerations are the roles we are slated with when selecting an elected official for our Congressional District. This Congressional District representative is a person elected by “the people”, such as those in a city or county, in hopes that they will have a voice to represent the decisions designed to impact their areas, respectfully. One such Congressional District representative is Lamar Seeligson Smith.
The Texas government is an unusually complex institution that is composed of many different levels. Everyone asks, with a constitution like the one Texas has, can people really trust the government? The main reasons why people might not be trusting of the government are that they might believe that the officials take advantage of their power, or want to try to control them. The Texas legislature is also subject to checks and balances in the three branch system. For example, the governor 's power to veto bills, which is rarely overridden, and to call special sessions; while the court has the power of judicial review. In Texas, the Constitution divides the powers
The constitution establish major governing institutions, assign institution’s power, place explicit and implicit control on power granted. All this gives the political legitimacy. The U.S constitution gives the base model for state constitution for Texas.
The Texas Revolution is one of the biggest events that contributed to the founding of this country. Texas’s fight for independence from the Mexican government was very beneficial to the young and growing United States. The effects of this war play a crucial role in how this country came to be
The government of the state of Texas is a difficult and complicated institution that is composed of many different levels. The question comes in to everyone's mind at one time or another whether or not to trust the government. It could be that people believe that the officials will take advantage of their power, or simply people don't like the idea of being controlled by someone who is not a family member or friend. To avoid this centralized power, the government is divided into stages and this is a reasonable ground for trusting the government. Government runs this state and it does deserve to be trusted.
Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians are perhaps three of the most prominent political parties within Texas. Within the pages of their party platforms, we see that each possesses a unique philosophy, with specific viewpoints and recommendations for shaping or reforming government policy. To be sure, the people of Texas face many challenges, two of the most compelling issues being the crisis in healthcare and in education. Not only are we lacking in these areas as Texans, but also on the national level. The parties’ stance on these two major issues defines them, giving us insight into the mind and intentions of each.
The funding of public education has long been an issue for the state government of Texas. Starting before Texas was even a state, public education funding was at the forefront of politicians’ minds. In 1836, one of the reasons Anglo-Texans wanted to become independent from Mexico was Mexico’s lack of a public school system (An Overview of the History of Public Education in Texas, 2016). This drove the desire of President Mirabeau B. Lamar of the Republic of Texas to create legislation that would grant public schools land (A Brief History of Public Education, n.d.). This act set aside four leagues of land per county for the use of free education centers and thus began the funding of public education by the state government (An Overview of the History of Public Education in Texas, 2016). In the last 177 years, the Texas Legislature and the Texas Education Agency have created numerous acts and laws regarding the funding of education, but it has been in the last 50 years that this topic has become highly contested, resulting in several lawsuits and endless efforts (by the school districts) to equalize the distribution of funds to Texas school districts (Texas School Finance History, n.d.). In sum, the complex issues and policies that surround the funding of public education are derived from a combination of the legislature, bureaucratic agencies, and local governments in the form of school districts.