See How a Bill Becomes a Law. The speaker is the presiding officer of the house of representatives. The Texas Constitution requires the house of representatives, each time a new legislature convenes, to choose one of its own members to serve as speaker.
As presiding officer, the speaker maintains order during floor debate, recognizing legislators who wish to speak and ruling on procedural matters. The constitution also requires the speaker to sign all bills and joint resolutions passed by the legislature. As a member of the house of representatives, the speaker may vote on all questions before the house. The other duties and responsibilities of the speaker are determined by the members of the house in the House Rules of Procedure, which are adopted by a majority vote of the members at the beginning of each regular session of the legislature.
The members give the speaker the authority to appoint the membership of each standing committee, subject to rules on seniority, and to designate the chair and vice chair for each committee. Under the rules, the speaker is responsible for referring all proposed legislation to committee, subject to the committee jurisdictions set forth in the rules. The rules also allow the speaker to appoint conference committees, to create select committees, and to direct committees to conduct interim studies when the legislature is not in session.
The Legislature of the State of Texas, operating under the biennial system, convenes its regular sessions at noon on the second Tuesday in January of odd-numbered years. The maximum duration of a regular session is days. The governor is given authority under the state constitution to convene the legislature at other times during the biennium. Such sessions are known as called or special sessions and are reserved for legislation that the governor deems critically important in the conduct of state affairs.
Called sessions are limited to a period of 30 days, during which the legislature is permitted to pass laws only on subjects submitted by the governor in calling for the session.
There are members of the house of representatives as opposed to 31 members of the senate. In , Louisiana changed its constitution to shorten and limit the scope of its even-year session. In , the citizens of Nevada adopted a constitutional amendment that restricts the legislative session to days. In , an amendment to the Louisiana Constitution changed the timing of its general and fiscal sessions and adjusted the length of the fiscal session; the changes went into effect January In , Alaska voters passed an initiative establishing a 90 day session in statute, which took effect in In November , however, South Dakota voters approved a constitutional amendment that lengthened legislative sessions.
The amendment equalized the length of session at 40 legislative days each year. Bills can be reported in several fashions, the most usual being do pass pass the bill just as it is , do pass as amended pass the bill as amended by the committee , and do pass substitute the committee offers a different version to take the place of the original bill.
The members on the prevailing side sign the "majority" report; those members who disagree with the majority sign the "minority" report. Not all bills coming out of committee have minority reports.
To see a list of bills reported out of House or Senate committee each day, go to Standing Committee Reports. As a bill moves through the committee process, the staff prepares the "bill report.
The bill report is edited as the bill moves through the process. When the bill moves to the opposite house, that house prepares a bill report as well. A bill that has finally passed the Legislature would have House, Senate, and Final bill reports. At the start of the session, both houses agree on dates by which bills have to be reported out of committee in order to be eligible for further consideration by the Legislature.
There is a "cut-off" date for bills to be out of committee in the first house and one for bills to be out of committee in the second house. Rules Committee: Once a bill has been reported by the appropriate committee s , the floor acts on the committee report and then passes the bill to the Rules Committee.
Usually, the floor adopts the committee's recommendation. The Rules Committee is where leadership exercises the most control over the process. The Rules Committee is made up of members from both parties.
Each member on the committee gets to select two or three bills that will move on to the next step in the process. Which bills a member selects could be the result of a party caucus, or another member approaching that member, or a piece of legislation about which the member feels strongly.
Rules Committee members review the bills and decide whether or not to move them on to the next step. Sometimes bills skip this step and go to the calendar for second reading. It is another step that allows leadership to control the process. Those bills that will probably require some debate are placed on the regular calendar. Those that are probably not controversial may be placed on the suspension calendar in the House, the consent calendar in the Senate.
Each house prepares documents that list the bills scheduled to be heard on the floor. The House prepares "bill report books" containing an order of contents and the bill report of each bill on the calendar and "floor calendars" a list of the bills, a brief description for each, and the committee action on each.
The Senate prepares "calendars" with an order of contents and the bill report of each bill , and "flash calendars" the list with the brief descriptions and committee actions. The Senate flash calendar lists only those bills that were "pulled" from Rules at the last Rules Committee meeting.
Second Reading: It is on second reading that the chamber discusses the merits of the legislation. For this purpose, before the chamber adjourns, it will agree to an order specifying the time for it to reconvene.
In this case, when the chamber reconvenes, a new legislative day begins, even though the calendar day remains the same, because an adjournment has intervened between the two periods of session. By this means, a chamber may convene for more than one legislative day on a single calendar day. Legislative Day. A period beginning with the convening of a chamber after an adjournment and ending with an adjournment. Daily Adjournment Adjournment from Day to Day.
The means through which a legislative day is terminated. If the chamber does not reconvene until the following calendar day, the adjournment also terminates a "day of session. Daily Recess. The means through which a legislative day is suspended. When the chamber reconvenes, the same legislative day continues, even if the recess extended overnight, and thereby terminated the previous "day of session. For instance, Senate Rules provide that when a measure is reported from committee, it must normally lie over for a period stated in legislative days before it can be taken up for consideration.
Similarly, House Rules provide that a "special rule" a resolution reported by the Committee on Rules, establishing a special order of business may not be considered on the same day reported, except by a two-thirds' vote, and this requirement is interpreted in terms of the legislative day.
In recent times, each chamber has used such a proceeding only occasionally. In setting times for reconvening after a daily adjournment, both chambers are restricted by the Adjournments Clause of the Constitution, which requires that "Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days. When either chamber plans to adjourn or recess its daily session for three days or more , Congress has developed two means of satisfying this constitutional requirement.
One is for the two chambers to adopt an "adjournment resolution," which is a concurrent resolution in which each gives the other permission to suspend its daily sessions for the desired period. Concurrent resolutions are appropriate for this purpose, because the concurrent resolution is a form of measure that requires the approval of both chambers, but is not presented to the President for approval.
The other means by which a chamber can effectively suspend its daily sessions for three days or more is for it to establish a schedule under which it meets at least every third day. The "three days" of such a break must include either the last day the chamber meets before the break, or the first day after the break.
These meetings, held for the purpose of avoiding the necessity of obtaining the consent of the other to an adjournment or recess of three days or more, are known as "pro forma sessions. Essential points from the previous section may be summarized by saying that, in respect to its daily sessions, the House or Senate is in session whenever it is formally convened, but whenever it has adjourned , it is in adjournment , and is out of session , until it reconvenes.
When a chamber has taken a recess , it is not in adjournment , but it is in recess and the House, at least, cannot then for all purposes be described as out of session. These concepts apply to annual sessions in ways that are largely analogous, but the different context leads to some differences in application.
Like a daily session, an annual session of either chamber begins when the session is formally convened and continues until it adjourns. The adjournment of an annual session is an adjournment sine die. In contemporary practice, the period between the convening of an annual session and an adjournment sine die typically encompasses a substantial portion of the year. The Constitution regulates annual sessions by providing that "The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.
A session of Congress, in this sense, involves annual sessions of both the House and the Senate that are concurrent or, in general, at least roughly concurrent.
Each Congress is elected for a two-year term of office, so that the term of office of each Congress comprises two regular annual sessions. Each Congress is identified by its numerical sequence; for example, the Congress that first convened in January was the th Congress. Each annual session is identified by its sequence within its own Congress; for example, the session that convened in January was the second session of the th Congress. For the first annual session of a new Congress, the Senate is normally convened by the Vice President or by its President pro tempore; 31 the House of Representatives is normally convened by the Clerk of the previous House.
The House adopts its Rules and elects its officers; the Senate accomplishes any desired changes to its previous Rules and officers. These organizing actions are valid for the entire Congress, so that, in any later annual session of the same Congress, each chamber is normally convened by its existing presiding officers, and may then proceed at once to business.
The President may call additional sessions of Congress, pursuant to his constitutional power "on extraordinary Occasions, [to] convene both Houses, or either of them. An extraordinary session stands on the same basis as the regular sessions in respect of its beginning, recess, and adjournment. Accordingly, the basic observations offered in this report section may be extended to extraordinary sessions without material modification, and this report uses the term "annual session" as contrasted with the "daily session" to include extraordinary as well as regular sessions.
Under contemporary conditions, the exercise of this presidential power has seldom proved necessary, for each regular annual session normally continues to meet throughout most of the year. If, however, the President were to call an extraordinary session after the sine die adjournment of one regular annual session and before the convening of the next, the presidentially called session would be a separate session of Congress, additional to the regular annual sessions that convene pursuant to the Constitution, and would receive a separate number within the regular sequence.
For example, the second session of the 76 th Congress in was an extraordinary session, convened by the President after the sine die adjournment of the first session; as a result, the final regular session of the 76 th Congress, which convened in , became the third session of that Congress. If, on the other hand, the President were to convene Congress at a time between the convening and sine die adjournment of a regular annual session, that same annual session would reconvene and continue to meet.
For example, when President Truman called the 80 th Congress back in , the second session of that Congress had not adjourned sine die; as a result, the assembly of Congress pursuant to the President's call represented a continuation of that second session.
Just as a daily session continues until an adjournment from day to day, so an annual session of either chamber continues until an adjournment sine die or "sine die adjournment". In essence, an adjournment sine die simply means "an adjournment that ends an annual session. In the sense applicable to the annual sessions of Congress, once either chamber convenes its session, it remains "in session" until it adjourns sine die.
In the same sense, in the period between the sine die adjournment of one annual session and the convening of the next, the chamber can properly be said to be "in adjournment" and "out of session. The requirement of the Adjournments Clause of the Constitution, that neither house adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other, is understood to apply to adjournments sine die as well as to adjournments from day to day within a session. As a result, when Congress intends to adjourn its session sine die, it is the practice of the two chambers to adopt an adjournment resolution in the form of a concurrent resolution, by which each authorizes the other to adjourn sine die on a specified date or within a specified range of dates.
A concurrent resolution for this purpose is often called simply an "adjournment resolution. It is the practice of Congress to adopt a concurrent resolution providing for a sine die adjournment even when the time for the next session to convene is three days or less distant.
The only circumstance under which a sine die adjournment of either chamber normally may occur without authority of a concurrent resolution arises when a chamber continues its annual session until the very point at which the next session is to convene. In these circumstances which, under the modern congressional schedule, have been infrequent , the chair most often simply declares the sine die adjournment of the chamber when the time arrives.
The Senate has explicitly established that, except at the point when the following session is immediately going to convene, a daily adjournment never brings about a sine die adjournment de facto, even if it occurs within three days of the convening of the next session and the body has agreed not to meet again until that next session convenes.
In such a case, the Senate treats its previous session as remaining in being until the point at which the chair declares the new session to have convened. As with the daily session, each chamber can also suspend its annual session for a period without adjourning it. A chamber may do so by adjourning or recessing its daily session to a time several days, or more, distant. When it does so, the annual session is not adjourned sine die, but only temporarily interrupted.
When the chamber convenes for its next daily session following a temporary break of this kind, the annual session of the chamber that was already in progress continues in being. That is, the same numbered session of Congress for example, the first session of the th Congress resumes.
Such a suspension of daily sessions in the course of the annual session is often referred to as a "recess," meaning, implicitly, a recess of the annual session. This usage generally parallels the use of "recess" in relation to the daily session, meaning, in both cases, a temporary break that does not terminate the session.
When referring to a break within the annual session, however, the term "recess" does not serve as a parliamentary term of art, but instead simply as a convenient, and widely understood, form of reference. In this respect, usage in relation to the annual session contrasts with that in relation to the daily session.
The significance of a recess within an annual session of Congress depends on its length. As noted earlier, the Adjournments Clause of the Constitution prohibits either chamber from adjourning for more than three days without the consent of the other.
This requirement is understood to apply not only to sine die adjournments, but also to periods within the annual session when the daily sessions of a chamber are suspended. In this way, the Adjournments Clause gives a distinct status to "recesses" of three days or more within an annual session.
In conformity with the language of the clause, such periods are formally referred to as "adjournments for more than three days" within the annual session.
As with sine die adjournments of a session, each chamber normally provides permission for the other to adjourn for three days or more by means of a concurrent resolution, adopted by both. Like the concurrent resolutions used for sine die adjournments, those used for adjournments for three days or more within the annual session may be referred to as "adjournment resolutions.
Like a motion authorizing a daily recess, a concurrent resolution for a "recess of the session" normally establishes the date for each chamber to reconvene. When a chamber reconvenes after a daily recess, moreover, the business of the daily session resumes from the point at which it left off; similarly, when a chamber reconvenes after a "recess of the session," the business of the annual session resumes from the point it had reached when the daily sessions were suspended.
If the term "recess of the session" is restricted to adjournments of three days or more within a session, a "recess of the session" will then routinely be identifiable by the presence of a concurrent resolution authorizing each house to take the recess.
This restriction, however, leaves no distinctive term for periods when the daily sessions are adjourned for fewer than three days. These briefer suspensions of daily sessions, too, may sometimes be spoken of as "recesses" in relation to the annual session. These breaks of fewer than three days between daily sessions occur routinely. For example, it is common practice in each chamber to adjourn a daily session on Friday and not to reconvene until the following Tuesday, or to adjourn on Thursday and not reconvene until Monday.
The practical effects of such a break are no different from those of a daily adjournment from one day to the next, or an overnight recess of the daily session. They have no significance in relation to the Adjournments Clause: not only do they not terminate the annual session, they do not even suspend it. A chamber may pursue such a schedule on its own authority, without the consent of the other, by any of the means specified in the section on daily adjournments.
The preceding discussion shows that in many respects, the terms "recess" and "adjournment" are used, in relation to the annual session, in ways that parallel their use in relation to the daily session.
An adjournment sine die terminates an annual session, just as an adjournment from day to day terminates a legislative day. A "recess of the session" for more than three days, pursuant to a concurrent resolution does not terminate an annual session, but only puts it in a state of suspension, just as a recess of the daily session does not terminate the legislative day, but only puts it into a state of suspension. A "recess of the session" stands in strict contrast with a sine die adjournment, just as a chamber cannot simultaneously be in adjournment and in recess with respect to its daily session.
Finally, the annual session of a chamber remains continuous through both daily recesses and adjournments in a sense that corresponds to the continuity of the chamber's daily session when no daily recesses occur between convening and adjournment.
Certain differences between the two contexts also exist, however. When the daily session of a chamber is interrupted by no daily recesses, the chamber is actually present and capable of business during every moment from convening to adjournment. On the other hand, even if a chamber's annual session is interrupted by no recesses of the session, the chamber is not actually present and capable of doing business during every consecutive moment from its first convening until the sine die adjournment.
Although the annual session remains continuous through daily recesses and adjournments, its actual capacity for business at any given moment, obviously, will be interrupted by these recesses and adjournments. Finally, a chamber may initiate a "recess" of its annual session either with a recess or an adjournment of its daily session.
The House normally recesses its annual session through an adjournment of its daily session. The Senate, on the other hand, has sometimes begun a recess of its annual session by taking a recess of daily session that continued throughout the "recess of the annual session.
Conversely, a chamber can adjourn its annual session sine die only by also adjourning its last daily session of that annual session. A chamber cannot adjourn its annual session sine die while recessing its daily session. Annual Session. A period that begins when the chamber first formally convene s after a sine die adjournment and lasts until it next adjourns sine die.
Recess of the Annual Session. The means through which an annual session is suspended for three calendar days or more in one or both chambers through a concurrent resolution. Such annual recesses may be initiated by an adjournment or recess of the daily session.
When the chamber reconvenes, the same annual session continues. Pro Forma Session. A daily session whose existence prevents the occurrence of a recess of the annual session or forestalls a sine die adjournment. In the primary sense of the term, a pro forma session is considered to include any daily session which is held chiefly to prevent the occurrence of a "recess of the session" that is, an adjournment for more than three days within an annual session or forestalls a sine die adjournment.
In this sense, a pro forma session is a kind of daily session that has a specific effect in relation to the status of the annual session. The term "pro forma session" has no application as a description of any form of annual session itself.
Beyond this point, however, "pro forma session" like "recess" in relation to the annual session does not have a precise formal sense; it is not a parliamentary term of art, but one that has been used informally to describe sessions having various characteristics and performing various functions. The term is commonly used, in particular, to connote a short daily session of either chamber in which little or no business is transacted, and often also for any session for which no session of that chamber occurs on either the preceding or following day.
Each chamber often uses pro forma sessions as a means of extending a weekend break without having to provide for a "recess of the session.
Under these circumstances, the significant feature that distinguishes the Monday, rather than the preceding Thursday, as the pro forma session is that it is the Monday on which no, or little, business is scheduled. Both houses have also used pro forma sessions as a means of establishing a constituency work period without requiring a "recess of the session. In this way, none of the intervals between daily sessions need constitute an adjournment for three days or more, and no concurrent resolution would be necessary.
In this case the Monday and Thursday sessions would clearly be identifiable as the pro forma sessions in all senses of the term. By this understanding of "pro forma session," during the week of the constituency work period, the body would be "in pro forma session" only between the convening and adjournment of its daily session on the Monday, and then on the Thursday.
It could not be properly described as "in pro forma session" during the week as a whole.
0コメント