Legislative Histories for Texas Laws

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Summary of the Texas Legislative Process
3. Documents Created During the Legislative Process
4. Availability of Documents Created During the Legislative Process
5. Assembling a Texas Legislative History
6. Conclusion
7. Additional Resources
   

1. Introduction

When working with statutory law, researchers often need to create a legislative history of a statute section or law. The purpose of a legislative history is to collect documents that were created during the law’s legislative journey. These documents may contain information about why the legislature passed the law, a.k.a. legislative intent. Legislative intent can be useful to students writing papers on law topics, and to attorneys working with the laws in practice.

It is relatively easy for a researcher to create a legislative history of a federal law. Most academic law libraries (including the O’Quinn Law Library) have access to print and electronic resources that contain federal legislative history information. For laws passed since the mid 1990s, there is a large amount of federal legislative history information available for free on the Internet. The wide availability of federal legislative history information can be attributed to the fact that researchers all over the United States are interested in federal legislative history information.

It is more difficult to create a legislative history for state laws, including Texas state laws. Historically, a researcher would have to travel to the state’s capital in order to conduct a comprehensive state legislative history. The good news is that the Internet now provides researchers with access to a substantial amount of state legislative history information.

2. Summary of the Texas Legislative Process

In the United States, the legislative process is similar on the state and federal levels. Here is a brief summary of the Texas legislative process:

1. A bill is introduced by a legislator into the Texas State House of Representatives or the Texas State Senate.
2. The legislator introducing the bill (the sponsor) may make remarks concerning the bill when it is introduced. These remarks are recorded in the House or Senate Journal.
3. The bill is assigned to a congressional committee.
4. The committee holds hearings on the bill in order to collect information about the bill’s subject matter.
5. The committee drafts reports and analysis summarizing the information and decisions concerning the bill.
6. The bill is sent back to the full House/Senate to be debated and voted on. The bill may be amended several times during the process in order to make the bill more appealing to legislators.
7. The House/Senate votes on the bill. The votes are recorded in the House/Senate Journal. If the House/Senate passes the bill, the bill is then sent to the other legislative chamber to be considered.
8. If the other legislative chamber passes an identical version of the bill, the bill is sent to the Texas Governor to be signed into law.
9. If the other legislative chamber passes the bill, but makes changes to the text of the bill in the process, members from both chambers convene a conference committee to reconcile the differences between the two versions. The conference committee produces a unified version of the bill and a report explaining the committee’s actions. The unified version of the bill is then sent to the Governor to be signed.
10. If the Governor signs the bill, the bill becomes law.
11. After the bill becomes a law, the entire text of the law is published in the General and Special Laws of the State of Texas (the session laws of the State of Texas).
12. After the bill becomes law, the language of the law is incorporated into the Texas Codes and Civil Statues. The print version of the Texas Codes and Civil Statutes is commonly referred to as “Vernon’s Texas Codes and Civil Statutes Annotated” or simply “Vernon’s.”

That is a very brief and incomplete summary of the Texas legislative process. Its purpose is to illustrate the various types of information that is created during the legislative process. For more comprehensive information about the Texas Legislative process, please consult the Texas Legislature’s Web site and the Legislative Reference Library of Texas Web site.

3. Texas Legislative History Documents

A review of the legislative process discussed in Section 1 illustrates that these documents can be created during the legislative process in the State of Texas:

(a) Several versions of the bills
(b) Remarks concerning the bill in the House/Senate Journals
(c) Committee hearing testimony
(d) Committee reports
(e) Committee analysis
(f) Floor debates
(g) Conference committee reports
(h) The full text of the law published in the General and Special Laws of the State of Texas
(i) The language of the law incorporated into the Texas Codes and Civil Statutes.

4. Availability of Texas Legislative History Documents

Section 3 lists the information created during the Texas Legislative Process. This section reviews if and where that information can be accessed.

(a) Bills and Bill Files

Prior to 1973: The Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin has print copies of all bills considered by the Texas Legislature prior to 1973. It is the only resource for bills from this time period.

1973 to 1987: Microfiche copies of bills considered by the Texas Legislature from 1973 to 1987 are available in the legislature’s microfiche bill files. The bill file will include the various versions of the bills, bill history, committee reports, and committee analyses. Three Texas libraries have copies of the legislature’s bill file for this time period: The Texas State Legislative Reference Library in Austin, the Dallas Public Library, and the Houston Public Library. If you are interested in using the Houston Public Library’s bill file, contact their Texas and Local History Department at (832) 393-1313

1989 forward: The history of bills considered by the legislature since 1989 are posted on the Texas State Legislature’s Web site. The Texas Legislature's Web site also includes the complete bill file for all bills since 1993.

(b) The House and Senate Journals

The House and Senate Journals may include remarks made about the bills by members of the legislature on the floor of the House and Senate. The journals for each legislative session include indexes that help researchers to locate references to their bill in the journals.

Anderson Library, the University of Houston’s main library, has the Texas House and Senate Journals in print format dating back to the early 1900s. In the near future, our law library will have similar print coverage.

The full text of the House and Senate journals since 1999 are available on the State Legislature’s Web site. Researches can search the online versions of the journals for reference to their bills.

(c) Committee Hearing Testimony

The Texas legislature doesn’t produce print transcripts of its committee hearings. Since 1973, the Texas legislature has recorded committee hearings on audiotapes. Researchers can order these tapes from the Texas House/Senate media offices.

Since 2001, both houses of the Texas legislature have posted live and archived video taped versions of committee hearings on the Internet. These can be accessed through the State Legislature’s Web site.

(d) Committee Reports

The committee reports are included in the bill files. See Section 4(a), “Bills and Bill Files”, for information about access to the bill files.

(e) Committee Analyses

The committee analyses are included in the bill files. See Section 4(a), “Bills and Bill Files” for information about access to the bill files.

(f) Floor Debates

The Texas legislature doesn’t produce print transcripts of its floor debates. Since 1973, the Texas legislature has recorded floor debates on audiotapes. Researchers can order these tapes from the Texas House/Senate media offices.

Since 2001, both houses of the Texas legislature have posted live and archived video taped versions of its floor debates on the Internet. These can be accessed through the State Legislature’s Web site.

(g) Conference Committee Reports

The conference committee reports are included in the bill files. See Section 4(a), “Bills and Bill Files” for information about access to the bill files.

(h) The General and Special Laws of the State of Texas

The General and Special Laws of the State of Texas series is published by West Group. They are located in the library’s Texas Collection at KFT1225.A23.

The General and Special Laws of the State of Texas series isn’t available on the Internet. However, you can find the text of the bill as it was passed into law by locating the enrolled version of the bill in the bill file on the Texas State legislature’s Web site. The enrolled version of the bill is the version that is published in the General and Special Laws of the State of Texas Series.

(i) The Texas Codes and Civil Statutes

After a bill is passed into law, it is incorporated in the Texas Codes and Civil Statues. The Texas Codes and Civil Statutes are available in print in the library in the Vernon’s Texas Codes and Civil Statutes Annotated, Texas Collection KFT 1230 et seq.

The current Texas Codes and Civil Statues are also posted on the Texas State Legislature’s Web site.

5. Assembling a Texas Legislative History

Researches can assemble a Texas legislative history by following these steps:

(a) Locate your code section in the Vernon’s Texas Codes and Civil Statutes Annotated.

(b) Locate the chapter number for your code section. The chapter number is posted at the end of the code section. If the code section had been amended, it will have more than one chapter number. Example: The chapter numbers for Texas Penal Code Section 35.02 (Insurance Fraud) are Acts of 1995, 74th Legislature, Chapter 621, and Acts of 2003, 78th Legislature, Chapter 605. This indicates the law was originally passed in 1995 and then amended in 2003. Review the historical and statutory notes at the end of the code section to determine which law you need to research. These notes will explain the affects of the amendments.

(c) Find the bill number for your chapter using the "Bill-Chapter Cross Reference Table" on the Legislative Reference Library of Texas Web site. This table provides the bill number for all laws passed by the Texas State Legislature since 1907. If your law was passed prior to 1907, locate your law in the General and Special Laws of the State of Texas. The original bill number for your bill will be included at the top of the text in the General and Special Laws. Write down the bill number, as you will need it to continue with your legislative history research. Example: The original bill number for Chapter 621 of the 74th Legislature is H.B. No. 1487. It is often useful to also read the text of the law published in the General and Special Laws to see if it includes any information about legislative intent.

(d) Using the bill number, locate the various legislative history documents discussed in this guide.

6. Conclusion

Assembling a legislative history of a Texas law can be a complex process. The good news is that legislative history information for recent laws is widely available, thanks to the Internet. Even for older laws, researches can assemble a comprehensive history for most laws without leaving Houston. The University of Houston and the Houston Public Library have a great deal of useful information available in their collections.

If you would like help assembling a Texas legislative history, please stop by the Reference Desk in the library.

7.Additional Resources

(a) Books with Information about Texas Legislative History:

Legal Research for the Texas Practitioner
• Chapter 9: Tracking Bills and Compiling Legislative Histories
• Authors: Brandon D. Quarles & Matthew C. Cordon
• Reserve Collection KFT 1274.Q37 2003

Texas Legal Research
• Chapter 13: Texas Legislative History
• Author: Lydia M. Brandt
• Reserve Collection KFT1275.B73 1995

(b) Web Sites

• Texas State Legislature (http://www.capitol.state.tx.us)
• Texas Legislative Reference Library (http://www.lrl.state.tx.us)

This guide was drafted by Peter J. Egler. Please send him your comments and questions.