GOVERNOR DOCUMENTS SEARCH HELP

Documents may be searched by author, document type, date of publication, title keyword or legislative session. You may also search for a document about a specific bill or bills.

Governor

Select a governor from the drop-down menu to return documents authored by that governor.

Document type

You may narrow your search by selecting one or more of the following document types:

• Executive orders: Executive orders issued by the governor. The Legislative Reference Library's collection of executive orders begins with Governor Robert Allan Shivers.


• Proclamations: Documents with a proclamation heading that relate to legislators and/or the legislative community, legislation, or legislative topics. Proclamations may also pertain to general, non-legislative subjects such as droughts, hurricanes, or state holidays.


• Message: Anything, not in proclamation form, but that takes the form of some other "official" document from the governor (memoranda, messages, etc.), that relates to legislators and/or the legislative community, legislation, or legislative topics. Includes bill siging and non-signing statements. Messages can also pertain to general, non-legislative subjects, such as state holiday declarations.


• Speeches: This database primarily contains State of the State speeches and Inaugural addresses. For Governor Rick Perry, some additional speeches from his website are present. These have been chosen selectively and do not represent a complete archive.


• Veto: As indicated in the Texas Constitution, Article IV, Section 14, if the governor disapproves a bill after the session has adjourned, notice is required to be in the form of a general proclamation. If however, the governor disapproves a bill while the legislature is in session, the Constitution does not specify the type of statement required. Historically, a variety of statement formats have been used. Vetoes in this database are classified by legislative session. When a veto is displayed in the search results, the bill that has been vetoed is listed as part of the title.


• Other: Documents such as letters, scholarly journal articles, or press releases, that do not fall into one of the above categories. Items in "Other" can be by or about a specific governor.

Published between

Items within a certain date range may be retrieved by filling in one or both of the "published between" fields.

Keyword or index term

Returns documents that have your keyword in the title.

Legislature

Select one or multiple sessions to narrow your search.

Search for documents about legislation

Enter bill information to find governor documents that mention or pertain to a specific bill.