Texas House of Representatives | |
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Eighty-seventh Texas Legislature | |
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Type | |
Type | |
Term limits | None |
History | |
New session started | January 12, 2021 |
Leadership | |
Speaker pro Tempore | |
Structure | |
Seats | 150 |
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Political groups | Majority (83)
Minority (67)
Vacant (1)
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Length of term | 2 years |
Authority | Article 3, Texas Constitution |
Salary | $7,200/year + per diem |
Elections | |
First-past-the-post | |
Last election | November 3, 2020 (150 seats) |
Next election | November 8, 2022 (150 seats) |
Redistricting | Legislative control |
Meeting place | |
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House of Representatives Chamber Texas State Capitol Austin, Texas | |
Website | |
Texas House of Representatives |
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 Census, each member represents about 167,637 people. There are no term limits. The House meets at the State Capitol in Austin.
Position | Name | Party | Residence | District |
---|---|---|---|---|
Speaker of the House | Dade Phelan | Republican | Beaumont | 21 |
Speaker Pro Tempore | Joe Moody | Democratic | El Paso | 78 |
Republican Caucus Chair | Stephanie Klick | Republican | Fort Worth | 91 |
Democratic Caucus Chair | Chris Turner | Democratic | Grand Prairie | 101 |
The Speaker of the House is the presiding officer and highest-ranking member of the House. The Speaker's duties include maintaining order within the House, recognizing members during debate, ruling on procedural matters, appointing members to the various committees and sending bills for committee review. The Speaker pro tempore is primarily a ceremonial position, but does, by long-standing tradition, preside over the House during its consideration of local and consent bills.
Unlike other state legislatures, the House rules do not formally recognize majority or minority leaders. The unofficial leaders are the Republican Caucus Chairman and the Democratic House Leader, both of whom are elected by their respective caucuses.
Affiliation | Party (Shading indicates majority caucus) | Total | |||
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Republican | Democrat | Ind | Vacant | ||
End 2010 | 75 | 73 | 0 | 148 | 2 |
Begin 2011 | 101 | 49 | 0 | 150 | 0 |
End 2012 | 48 | 149 | 1 | ||
Begin 2013 | 95 | 55 | 0 | 150 | 0 |
End 2014 | |||||
Begin 2015 | 98 | 52 | 0 | 150 | 0 |
End 2016 | 99 | 50 | 1 | ||
Begin 2017 | 95 | 55 | 0 | 150 | 0 |
End 2018 | 94 | 56 | 0 | 150 | 0 |
Begin 2019 | 83 | 67 | 0 | 150 | 0 |
Begin 2021 | 82 | 67 | 0 | 150 | 1 |
Latest voting share | 55.3% | 44.7% |
The Speaker of the House of Representatives has duties as a presiding officer as well as administrative duties. As a presiding officer, the Speaker must enforce, apply, and interpret the rules of the House, call House members to order, lay business in order before the House and receive propositions made by members, refer proposed legislation to a committee, preserve order and decorum, recognize people in the gallery, state and hold votes on questions, vote as a member of the House, decide on all questions to order, appoint the Speaker Pro Tempore and Temporary Chair, adjourn the House in the event of an emergency, postpone reconvening in the event of an emergency, and sign all bills, joint resolutions, and concurrent resolutions. The administrative duties of the Speaker include having control over the Hall of the House, appointing chair, vice-chair, and members to each standing committee, appointing all conference committees, and directing committees to make interim studies. [5]
The Chief Clerk is the head of the Chief Clerk's Office which maintains a record of all authors who sign legislation, maintains and distributes membership information to current house members, and forwards copies of legislation to house committee chairs. [6] The Chief Clerk is the primary custodian of all legal documents within House. Additional duties include keeping a record of all progress on a document, attesting all warrants, writs, and subpoenas, receiving and filing all documents received by the house, and maintaining the electronic information and calendar for documents. When there is a considerable update of the electronic source website, the Chief Clerk is also responsible for noticing House members via email. [5]
In addition to these committees, there are also six joint committees composed of members of both the State House and Senate:
On May 14, 2007, CBS Austin affiliate KEYE reported on multiple voting by representatives during House floor sessions. [8] The report noted how representatives register votes for absent members on the House's automated voting machines. Each representative would vote for the nearest absent members (apparently regardless of party affiliation). This practice was in direct violation of a Rule of the House; however, no representative had ever been disciplined for the practice in the almost 70 years since the rule was adopted. Speaker Craddick, responsible for enforcement of House Rules, issued a statement that discipline for violations of the rule is left to the individual members.
Chaos erupted in the Texas House of Representatives on Friday, May 25, 2007, when Rep. Fred Hill, R-Richardson, attempted to offer a motion to remove Tom Craddick as Speaker and have the House elect a new speaker. Craddick (also a Republican) refused to allow him to make the motion. [9] The attempts to oust Craddick continued through the weekend as other Republicans made additional motions, which were also disallowed.
The last time a Texas House speaker was removed by a vote of his fellow members was in 1871, when the House adopted a resolution removing Speaker Ira Evans. The Republican House majority removed Evans because he was seen as cooperating too much with Democrats on an elections bill. [9] While Craddick's close allies say the 2007 attempt to remove Craddick was just an effort by Democrats to gain greater control of the legislature before the legislative and congressional redistricting process of 2011, [9] Cook said that the fight was about Craddick consolidating power with lobbyists and using campaign contributions to maintain control of the House: "This is about the convergence of money and power and influence." [9]
In January 2009, Craddick lost the Speaker's chair after a challenge from Joe Straus.
On June 20, 2013 Byron Cook served as chairman of the House State Affairs Committee hearing on Texas State House Bill 60. Cook's stance was for the passing of the bill and during the hearing he interrupted a testimony, saying "Some of us do (adopt children)." At 12:00 AM on June 21, Cook decided to close the hearing prematurely. [10] Cook's explanation for breaching Texas State Legislature operating procedures was that the testimonies being heard had become repetitive. Twenty-four minutes later, Cook became personally offended by a testimony, ordering the cameras to be shut off and leaving the room of committee members and witnesses. Approximately 20 minutes afterwards, Cook was persuaded by colleagues to resume the hearing and continued listening to testimonies until he prematurely closed the hearing at 1:30 AM. [11]
The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives and the lower chamber, the Maryland House of Delegates, has 141 representatives. Members of both houses serve four-year terms. Each house elects its own officers, judges the qualifications and election of its own members, establishes rules for the conduct of its business, and may punish or expel its own members.
The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the US state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful arm of the Texas government not only because of its power of the purse to control and direct the activities of state government and the strong constitutional connections between it and the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, but also due to Texas's plural executive.
The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted in 1968, defines the role of the Legislature and how it is to be constituted. The House is composed of 120 members, each elected from a single-member district with a population of approximately 157,000 residents. Legislative districts are drawn on the basis of population figures, provided by the federal decennial census. Representatives' terms begin immediately upon their election. As of 2020, Republicans hold the majority in the State House with 78 seats; Democrats are in the minority with 42 seats.
The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2010 U.S. Census. Its composition, powers and duties are established in Article IV of the Michigan Constitution.
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The Tennessee General Assembly (TNGA) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is a part-time bicameral legislature consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The Speaker of the Senate carries the additional title and office of Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee. In addition to passing a budget for state government plus other legislation, the General Assembly appoints three state officers specified by the state constitution. It is also the initiating body in any process to amend the state's constitution.
The Alaska House of Representatives is the lower house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. The House is composed of 40 members, each of whom represents a district of approximately 17,756 people per 2010 Census figures. Members serve two-year terms without term limits. With 40 representatives, the Alaska House is the smallest state legislative lower chamber in the United States.
Thomas Russell Craddick Sr., known as Tom Craddick, is member of the Texas House of Representatives representing the 82nd district. Craddick was Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from January 2003 to January 2009. He was the first Republican to have served as Speaker since Reconstruction. Craddick resides in Midland, the largest city in his district. Craddick was first elected in 1968 at the age of twenty-five. By 2012, he was already the longest-serving member of the Texas state legislature and the second-longest-serving representative in the history of the state. In the general election held on November 6, 2018, Craddick won his 26th term in the legislature. With 37,504 votes, he defeated the Democratic candidate, Spencer Bounds, who polled 9,207 votes. In this same election, Craddick's daughter, Christi Craddick, won her second term as a Republican member of the Texas Railroad Commission.
The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives.
James Earl Laney, known as Pete Laney, is a U. S. Democratic Party politician from West Texas. He was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1973 to 2007. A resident of Hale Center, near Plainview in Hale County, Laney served as House Speaker from 1993 to 2003. As of 2020, Laney is the most recent Democrat to serve as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives; Republicans have held this position ever since.
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The Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the Texas House of Representatives. The Speaker's main duties are to conduct meetings of the House, appoint committees, and enforce the Rules of the House. The current speaker is Dade Phelan, a Republican from Beaumont, who was elected Speaker on January 12, 2021.
The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's budget. The upper house of the Oklahoma Legislature is the Oklahoma Senate.
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James R. Pitts, known as Jim Pitts, is an American state politician and lawyer who served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1993 to 2015. He was the chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee for four legislative sessions. He is a Republican from Waxahachie in Ellis County, south of his native Dallas, Texas.
In disciplinary procedures, the motion to declare the chair vacant is used as a remedy to misconduct or dereliction of duty by the chairperson of a deliberative assembly, when the rules allow it. It is usually combined with a motion to elect a new chair.
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Burt Rowe Solomons is an attorney from North Carrollton, Texas, who was from 1995 to 2013 a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 65 in suburban southeastern Denton County.