Texas Legislature Sessions Essay

Legislatures continue to explore methods of improving their effectiveness as the debate on whether to have annual or biennial sessions persists. Currently, 46 states legislature meet annually, and only Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas hold biennial sessions (NCSL). The state constitution limits the legislature to meet for 140 days every other year (Silver). Texas citizens have maintained a limited approach to the government for long. Regarding composition, Texas Senate has 31 members while the House of Representatives have 150 lawmakers (Leroux). Texas legislatures should adopt an annual and full-time session to increase the quantity and quality of its work.

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The adoption of annual sessions and full-time work for Texas legislators would help increase bills output. Over the time, the legislative house has been a magnet of criticisms for the many bills that die in the process of legislation. Hung notes that by the time the legislature adjourned for its 84th time, 5, 797 bills had died in the processes of their enactment. Among the most important bills that have failed to materialize was on the texting-and-driving ban, traffic light ban, and drunken-driving (Silver). Again, having a time system means that at the end of the session the legislature has many bills pilled-up. Voters would prefer a legislature that can resolve public issues in a timely and accurate way. In any case, annual sessions and full-time sessions would translate to more hours and commitment necessary to pass more bills into laws. Besides, more time at the legislature means that the legislators get more opportunity to increase their experience and enough time to design, discuss, and improve bills. Consequently, the quality of legislative laws would improve to the benefit of residents. Negatively, the lack of a ticking clock would increase laxity among the lawmakers.

Making legislators serve on a fulltime would make them more responsible, and their reduce turnover rates. For example, in 2017, 26 members of House of Representatives were new, and 22 out of them were freshmen (Leroux). The system would work better with a better sense of permanency that would instill a sense of responsibility in legislative offices. Moreover, lawmakers would offer continuous oversight on the state administration leading to more accountability (NCSL). However, making legislating a fulltime job would require a review in remunerations. Silver observes that currently, state lawmakers annual income is $7,200 meaning they would require more to serve longer. In comparison, the states with full-time legislators like California pay up to $95,000 in salary. Thus, a shift would increase the budget burden and local taxation. Besides, legislators serving on a full-time or part-time basis realize they have different timelines and are likely to utilize legislative calendar and workloads in their ways (Bangcaya et al. 11). Finally, part-time service does allow the legislators some time to interact and build relations with their constituents.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it would be best if the Texas legislature was to meet every single year and the lawmakers were full-time employees. Within annual sessions, lawmakers would have more time to pass many crucial bills and to refine the quality of laws. Besides, if legislators work fulltime, they would be more responsible and able to offer lasting oversight. Consequently, the levels of personnel turnover in the legislature would reduce while administrative accountability improves. However, altering the calendar of the lawmaking house and part-time status of the politicians would lead to laxity and increased budget cost.

Works Cited

Bangcaya, Matthew, et al. "Professionalism and Effectiveness in State Legislatures." May 2015. ttp://bush.tamu.edu/psaa/capstones/projects/2015/TX%20Legislative%20Capstone%202015.pdf

Galbrath, Kate. "Texas Stands Against Tide in Retaining Biennial Legislature." New York Times, 30 Dec. 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/us/politics/31ttlegislature.html. Accessed 20 June 2018.

Leroux, Bailey. "85th Texas Legislature." Texas County Progress, countyprogress.com/85th-texas-legislature/. Accessed 20 June 2018.

National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL). "Annual Versus Biennial Legislative Sessions" 2018, www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/annual-versus-biennial-legislative-sessions.aspx. Accessed 20 June 2018.

Silver, Jonathan. "Pro-con: Should Texas Legislature be in Session Year-round? Victorian Advocate." www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/business/pro-con-should-texas-legislature-be-in-session-year-round/article_7c9be3cc-55c1-53cf-8a4b-f26826bace4b.html. Accessed 20 June 2018.