Making Laws in Texas House - Essay Example

? (Assignment) SHORT ESSAYS The US House of representatives is one of the two Houses of the United s Congress while Texas House of representatives deals with the issues of Texas State, the largest state in the United States. Currently, there are 435 members in the US House of Representatives while the number of members in the Texas House is 150. The power and responsibilities enjoyed by the members of both houses reflect similarity. The main duty in both the cases is making laws. They introduce new proposals and approve or reject the new laws. However, to decide who enjoys a better job; a US House member or a Texas House member, it is necessary to look into various factors including pay and other benefits, time spent on the job, duration of the term. In the case of eligibility to get elected to the post, Texas House is far easier than US House to reach. First of all, the minimum age required to be elected to the Texas House is twenty-one years while that of the US House is twenty five years. In addition, while US House requires that a member should be a citizen of United States for the past seven years, for Texas House, it is 2 years. However, in the case of compensation, US House far outreach the Texas House. While the former gives an annual salary of $ 174, 000, the latter offers a meager amount of $ 600 per month, along with a per diem of $ 128, thus totaling to $ 17,920 per year, showing a ten times difference! In addition, other retirements heavily favor US House members In addition, the US House members enjoy a hefty pension, personal staff allowance, expense allowances, foreign travel allowance, and in addition, can make an income from outside employment that does not exceed 15% of their member pay. On the other hand, Texans receive a meager sum as salary. In the case of terms of service both seem similar in the fact that both are elected for two year terms and can get elected infinite number of times. However, in the case of Texas legislation, the number of regular session is 140 days to the maximum though the governor calls for special sessions which can go up to a maximum of 30 days (Texas House of Representatives). On the other hand, US House is considered full-time but sessions last six months or more, that starts in January and ends by the end of July. In total, it seems that though the US House members are in full-time job getting huge salaries and other benefits, they remain far away from their constituency, thus being unable to concentrate on the issues affecting the local people. On the other hand, though Texas house members get less salary and other benefits, they get ample opportunity to interact with the people, and thus, playing their role well. I would rather go for Texas House membership as it gives the satisfaction of public service. 2 Both the Texas legislature and the US Congress are similar to a great extent in their structure, function, election and length of terms. However, a close look will reveal a huge difference in the pay of representatives and nature and duration of sessions. When the structure of both the legislatures is taken into consideration, one can find a lot of similarities, the first one being their bicameral nature. The US Congress is divided into two; the Senate and the House of Representatives with 100 members in the former and 435 members in the latter. Similarly, Texas legislature has a Senate with 31 members and a House of Representatives with 150 members. . One can find a lot of similarities in the nature of elections too. In both the cases, the term of each member is two years and the election to all the posts in the House of Representatives takes place every two years, in even-numbered years. However, there is difference in the election of Senate members. Senate members of the Congress hold their office for six years, but one third of the seats come up for election every two years. On the other hand, the members in the Texas senate are divided into two groups and half of the seats come up for election every two years. However, one can see slight difference in the nature of the sessions in both the cases. While the Texas legislature meets in Regular Sessions for five months from January of every odd numbered year till the end of May or beginning of June (Texas House of Representatives). US House is considered full-time but sessions last about six months a year, which starts in January and ends in July. However, the biggest difference is seen in the salaries and allowances of representatives. While a Texas House Representative receives near about $ 17,920 as salary and allowances per year, that of US congress is above $ 174, 000, thus showing a huge difference. In total, it is clear that both the Texas legislature and the US Congress possess a lot features in common though there are certain distinct differences. 3 The position of vice president is often ignored but it is amazing to note that fourteen of the former vice presidents became presidents later (Vice Presidents of the United States). However, the position of vice president in the US does not involve a lot of responsibility as per the constitution. On the other hand, lieutenant governor is the second most powerful individual in the state of Texas though there are is a lot of similarity between the two. The very first similarity in the duty of both the vice president and lieutenant governor is their role as the President of the Senate. Article I, Clause 6 of the Constitution states that on the death, resignation or inability of the president, the duty is vested on the vice president. In addition, another role of vice president is provided in Clause 4, that the vice president should act as the president of the Senate but has no vote, unless there is equal division in the senate which requires additional vote. Yet another important duty of the president is to receive the tally of ballots from states for presidential election and to open it in the presence of Senate and House Representatives for counting. Though a skilled vice president has a good role to play presiding over the senate, most of the time, the role of vice president does not arise seriously if there is no need of a tie-break. A very similar administrative role is played by the lieutenant governor in the state of Texas. The lieutenant governor is supposed to exercise the powers of the governor in case of governor’s death, resignation or inability to perform his duties. In addition, the lieutenant governor is the president of the Texas Senate and in case of a tie, he gives the tie-breaking vote. Though this much is similar in both the cases, there many more roles played by the lieutenant governor in the state administration. The lieutenant governor also acts as the chairman of the Legislative Budget Board and the Legislative Council. In addition, he functions as the vice chairman of the Legislative Audit Committee, Legislative Education Board and the Legislative Redistricting Board. In addition, he has the power to organize standing and special committees. Furthermore, when the Senate functions as a committee, he has the right to take part in discussion and to vote (Lieutenant Governor). Thus, in total, it is very clear that the lieutenant governor has a more important legislative role to play in the state of Texas than the vice president has in the US. 4 Filibuster is the process of extending an unnecessarily long debate or speech with an intention to delay the procedure of the Senate or to delay or prevent the vote on a given bill. It is an effective weapon used by minorities in the Senate to sabotage the procedures in the Senate including approval of bills. Similarly, in the Texas legislation, a two-third majority is required to pass any bill in the Senate, which makes it difficult for ruling parties to get a bill going. It is seen that the US House of Representatives effectively prevented the art of filibustering by imposing a rule limiting the duration of the debate. However, the pathetic thing is that according to the current Senate rules, a two-third majority is required to stop a filibusterer from filibustering a bill against filibuster, thus making a rule change almost impossible. In other words, it is not beneficial to present the bill if there is no surety of getting a two third majority. Because, even if a single senator wants to oppose a bill, he will resort to filibuster and to stop him through a cloture, two-third majority is required to invoke cloture. Thus, though the requirement to pass a bill is a fifty plus one majority, in practice, a bill without two-third majority fails. Similarly, in the state of Texas, the passing of any bill requires two-third majority, that is at least 60% votes to pass any bill. Thus, in practice, both the Senates fail to function properly as the requirement of super majority hinders their functioning very often. On the other hand, the House of Representatives, with the rule that restricts debate time, is able to function effectively in passing bills. In total, it can be said that it is necessary to enact such rules in the US Senate and to reduce the requirement to simple majority in the Texas Senate. 5 Filibuster is the process of extending an unnecessarily long debate or speech with an intention to delay the procedure of the Senate or to delay or prevent the vote on a given bill. It is an effective weapon used by minorities in the Senate to sabotage the procedures in the Senate including approval of bills. The benefit of using filibuster is that while passing a bill requires only a simple majority according to the US legislation, to stop a filibuster, two-third majority is required. Thus, by resorting to filibustering, it is possible to thwart bills that enjoy a simple majority. In Texas, filibuster is allowed only in the senate and is used effectively to kill or delay a bill as much as possible. However, the lower house in the US effectively managed to stop the threat of filibustering by introducing a rule that limits the duration of debate as early as 1842. Similarly, in Texas House of Representatives, Rule 5, Section 29 states that speeches are allowed only for a limited time of 10 minutes. Further extension of time requires consent by a majority vote and more time requires unanimous consent. (Rules and Precedents of the Texas House, 70-80). Thus, it becomes evident that presently, filibuster is effective in the Senates of both US and Texas and to stop its abuse, it is highly necessary to have rules like the ones implemented in the Houses of Representatives in both the cases. Works Cited Lieutenant Governor. Texas State Historical Association. n.d. web 19 Feb 2011 Rules and Precedents of the Texas House, 81st Legislature. Texas Legislative Council, 2009. Web 19 Feb 2011 Texas House of Representatives. Official website, n.d. 19 Feb 2011 Vice Presidents of the United States (President of the Senate). United States Senate. Web 19 Feb 2011 Read More