At noon on January 12, the Texas House and the Texas Senate gaveled in the start of the 87th Texas Legislature. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick opened the Senate and Secretary of State Ruth Ruggero Hughs opened the House. The first order of business in the House was the election of a new Speaker of the House made necessary because the previous Speaker … [Read more...]
87th Texas Legislature Is Underway; Dade Phelan Elected Speaker of the House
87th Texas Legislature: Meet Your State Senators
There are 31 State Senators in the Texas State Senate, each representing about 900,000 Texans. Three State Senate Districts include part of Arlington: District 22 the seat now held by Senator Brian Birdwell, District 10 currently held by Senator Beverly Powell and District 9 held by Senator Kelly Hancock. The Senate is led by the Lt. Governor, … [Read more...]
San Antonio State Representative Proposes Annual Legislative Sessions
Republican Representative Kyle Larson (San Antoni0) pre-filed HB979 seeking to have the Texas Legislature meet every year instead of just the odd-numbered years. The bill would change the normally 140-day session every two years into a 70-day session every year. Because the change would require a constitutional amendment, he also introduced HJR52 … [Read more...]
Delayed Census Numbers May Complicate Redistricting
The Federal Census Bureau has announced to the administration that it is not likely to be able to deliver the final census numbers to the President by December 31 as required by law. The pandemic is largely to blame, making it almost impossible for census workers to go door to door collecting information from those who failed to complete their … [Read more...]
Congressional Districts in Texas to Be Shuffled in Reapportionment, Redistricting
The US Constitution requires every 10 years “counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.” The counting is done by the US Census Bureau in years ending in zero and must, by statute, be delivered to the President by December 31st of that year. The count is then used to apportion the number of members of the … [Read more...]
Redistricting the Texas House and Senate
One person, one vote is an underlying principle of our republic. Each member of the Texas House should represent about the same number of Texans; same with the Senate. The number of State Representatives is fixed at 150, the number of State Senators at 31. Texas population is growing rapidly, but not evenly throughout the state. So, every 10 … [Read more...]