Texas Legislative Branch Research Paper

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The Texas Legislative Branch of Government The Texas Constitution divides the state government into three separate: the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch. These three branches share equal power within the Texas State governemt. The executive branch is lead by the governor, the judicial branch consists of the Texas Supreme Court and the local courts around the state, finally, the legislative branch, is lead by the Texas Legislature, which includes the 150 members of the house of representatives and the 31 members of the state senate. These members of the house of representatives are elected to two-year terms and Senators serve four-year terms. Unlike the U.S. legislative branch the Texas legislature meets every odd-numbered year to write new laws and to find solutions to the problems facing the state. In Texas this time period is called the “Regular Session” and lasts for 140 days. While this may seem like a short time period compared to the national legislature, the governor can call the legislature to meet at …show more content…

Some believe that the main reason the Texas Legislature to change would be that they would be able to meet annually and get more bills passed and be able to cover more throughout the time period. Texas is faced with multiple issues as a whole regarding immigration, unemployment and water conservation. With loaded bills and legislation like this an annual legislative session would be more beneficial to the State as a whole. Some think that this would allow the legislature to attend their business in a timely manner and not be rushed by the deadline of 140 days. It would allow the legislature to gel more readily and synergize on the legislation that is needed to be passed. By meeting annually, Texas could virtually eliminate the special sessions that the governor calls since the legislators would already be there annually and he would not have to call them into