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Government Ch. 23
The Texas Legislature
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| The Texas Senate has _______ members. | 31 |
| The Texas House has _____ members. | 150 |
| Single-member districts | District having one member elected to legislature. |
| Multimember district | District having more than one member elected to the legislature. |
| Which type of district represents geographically? By majority? (Single member, multimember) | Single = geographically Multimember = majority |
| "Matthew effect" | "For whoever has to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him." |
| Reapportionment vs redistricting | Reapportionment - reps to districts Redistricting - drawing district lines |
| Equity of representation | Situation in which each member of a legislature represents about the same number of people |
| Legislative Redistricting Board (LRB) | State board composed of elected officials that can draw new legislative districts for the House and Senate if the legislature fails to act |
| LRB is made up of... | Lieutenant governore, speaker of house, attorney general, comptroller, commissioner of general land office |
| Minority representation | Requirement that in drawing legislative districts, the legislature should create districts that give members of minority groups an opportunity to be elected |
| Gerrymandering | Drawing legislative districts to achieve the political advantage of one party over another |
| Republican party = more or less gerrymandering? | MORE |
| Racially gerrymandered majority-minority districts | Legislative districts that are drawn to the advantage of a minority group |
| After Supreme Court cases and limitations, etc, stance on racial gerrymandering? | Race can be a factor; it must not be the primary factor |
| Redistricting drama and outcome in 2003 | Senate and House didn't do anything, LBR=mostly Republican. Redistricted and gave Republican control of House and Senate |
| The congressional district map used in 2002 elected cycle was drawn by | A special 3 judge federal court |
| Why did Republicans want to redraw districts for 2003? | The plan drawn by judges in 2002 favored R but 17 elected D and only 15 elected R. Redraw! |
| Quorum | Two-thirds of the whole membership |
| How Democrats stopped original bill for redistricting in 2003 from passing? | 52 D went to Oklahoma |
| Why didn't Texas Senate originally debate the issue of redistricting in 2003? | Needed two-thirds of it to agree to consider it. Too many Democrats. |
| When Gov Perry called for a special session to reconsider re-redistricting proposal, what happened? | House passed, senate blocked. 11 senators fled to New Mexico |
| How did the second special session regarding re-redistricting go? | Tried to convince and fine fled senators, but they stayed and special session ended. |
| Third special session about re-redistricting? | Two different bills passed quickly in House and Senate. Conference committee. Entirely new map approved and passed. |
| What was wrong with the new re-redistricting? | It split minorities on the basis of diluting Democrats. U.S. Supreme Court even changed some districts. |
| Republicans increased their control of the U.S. House of Reps in 2004 by ____ seats. | 6 |
| Texas House member requirements | U.S. citizen, registered voter, 21, lived in state for 2, district for 1 |
| Texas Senate member requirements | 26, district for 1, state for 5 |
| Informal qualifications | Income, education, occupation, ethinicity, gender Tend NOT to represent well |
| "Birthright" characteristics | Social and economic characteristics of legislators that match certain demographic characteristics of many people in their district Tend TO represent well |
| Texas has higher than average # of ______ and lower # of _____ in legislature | Higher businessmen Lower teachers |
| Safe election districts | Noncompetitive districts that can be won only by the party with 55 percent or more of the votes in the district |
| Main two categories of House and Senate districts | noncompetitive Republican Anglo districts and noncompetitive Democratic minority districts |
| Main two areas of safe Democratic legislative districts | South Texas, East Texas |
| Competition in districts is most likely to occur | At primary level when no incumbent |
| "Owner's Box" | Upper right gallery of the Texas House chamber, for most powerful members of lobbies |
| Turnover | The number of new members of the legislature each session |
| Turnover rates in Texas: High/low? | HIGH. Many retire. |
| Term limits | Limits on the number of times a person can be elected to the same office |
| In the Texas legislature, power is concentrated in these two positions. | Speaker of the House, and lieutenant governor |
| Speaker of the house | Member of the Texas House, elected by the other House members, who serves as presiding officer and generally controls the passage of legislation |
| What is the first formal act of the House in Texas? | Elected the speaker. |
| Committee assignments | Decisions by the speaker of the house on which members of the House sit on each committee; some committees, such as appropriations, are more powerful than others |
| Formal rules in House give speaker these powers: | Appoint all chairs, appoint most members of standing committees, appoint calender/procedural/conference/special/interim, presiding officer over all sessions, refers all bills to committees |
| "Speakers team" | Selected chairs |
| A new speaker is chosen only after | Death, retirement, resignation |
| Is Texas House bipartisan? | Not really anymore, after 2003 when Republicans took over |
| Parliamentarian | Expert in legislative procedures |
| Speaker of TX House | Joe Straus |
| Lietenant governor | Presiding officer of the Texas Senate, elected by the voters of the state |
| How is lietenant governor elected? | Elected by voters for 4 year term |
| Lieutenant governor powers: | Appoint senate chairs, all members of committees, presiding officer, interpret rules, refer all bills to committees |
| When are Senate formal rules made? | at the beginning of each session |
| Are MOST lieutenant governor's strong? | Nope! Most are figure heads, rare to be strong. |
| If there is no lieutenant governor, what happens? | Senate elects someone to be presiding officer, pro tempore |
| Interim committees | Temporary committees of the legislature that study issues between regular sessions and make recommendations on legislation |
| Types of committees | Subcommittees, standing, conference, temporary |
| Who decides time and agendas of committee meetings? | The chairs |
| Before the sixtieth how do bills pass in the Senate? | Simple majority vote |
| After the sixtieth day, how do bills pass in the Senate? | Two-thirds vote |
| If bills are considered out of order reported out of committees in Senate, how pass? | Two-thirds vote |
| Rider | Provision attached to a bill that may not be of the same subject matter as the main bill |
| Closed rider | Provision attached to appropriations bills that is not made public until the conference committee meets |
| Calenders | Procedures in the House used to consider differend kinds of bills: Major bills and minor bills are considered under different procedures (Texas has LOCAL and CONSENT) |
| Local and Consent Calendars Committee | Committee handling minor and non-controversial bills that normally apply to only one county |
| Calendars Committee | Standing committee of the House that decides which bills will be considered for the floor debate and to which committees they will be assigned |
| If debate exceeds ten minutes... | bill is withdrawn and killed |
| Three calendars for major bills: | Emergency, major state, and general state |
| Difference in treatment of minor and major bills | Major introduced earlier, major more evenly distributed, major amended more, major more likely to be killed, major get killed later |
| Most legislation is passed when? | Final two weeks of the session |
| Informal rules | Set of norms or values that govern legislative behavior |
| Speakers control in the House | Bill Hobby=seldom forced will Bob Bullock=strong, effective Rick Perry=no rep, effective Dewhurst=unknown, effective but partisan |
| Delegate role vs. trustee role | Delegate=more democratic Trustee=more elitist |
| TX House and Senate staff salary | senate- 25000 house- 8500 |
| "Professionalism" measured by some things: | annual salary, number of days, money |
| TX salaries high or low? | LOW. part=time 7200 a year 139 a day for first 140 days in session |
| Biennial session | Meeting of the legislature every two years. (TX is one of five) |
| Sessions of TX legislature | 140 in odd-numbered years, beginning in january |
| Sine die | Adjourned; the legislature must adjourn at the end of its regular session and cannot continue to meet |
| Extraordinary sessions | Legislative session called by the legislature, rather than the governor; not used in Texas |
| Special sessions | Session called by the governor to consider legislation proposed by the governor only. not more than 30 days |
| Examples of many recent special sessions called for: | Budgetary problems, reapportionment issues, school finance, prison funding |
| Four factors for proffessionalism ranking | Full-time or part-time, pay, staff size, turnover. Texas = moderate proffessional citizen legislature |
Created by:
13emily14