Committee minutes of the 77th Legislature (House, Senate, and Joint, 2001–2002) have been scanned and are available in the LRL's committee minutes database. Our database now contains scanned minutes for the 63rd–77th Legislatures (1973–2001).
In addition to the information typically included in minutes, a variety of interesting supplemental resources, reports, maps, and transcripts are available. (Some of these PDFs include bookmarks to enhance navigation.) For example:
- The October 28, 1977 minutes for the House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on the Texas Water Plan, 65th Legislature, include maps documenting the state of water resources at the time and projections for the future. (Large file may take a while to load.)
- At the January 23, 1979 meeting of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, 63rd Legislature, attendees seem to have heard a “Poem about Pollution,” which is included on the last page of the minutes document.
- The 70th Legislature’s Joint Special Task Force on Rural Health Care Delivery documentation includes Rural Health Care '89, an excellent summary of the legislative package in the 71st Legislature, including the Omnibus Health Care Rescue Act, Medicaid enhancement, creation of the Outstanding Rural Scholar Recognition Program for rural students to pursue education in a health-related field, and hospital districts. (The report is also linked in the Legislative Archive System for the bills discussed, such as HB 1345, 71st R.S.)
- The House Committee on Redistricting, 77th Legislature, produced and reviewed many special supporting documents and color redistricting maps.
- The majority of meetings do not have transcriptions, but for the Senate Interim Committee on Economic Development, 75th Legislature, you can click on the dates to access minutes, witness lists, and transcripts for all of its meetings.
The LRL database also allows users to search for committee documents from the 78th–85th Legislatures that are available through Texas Legislature Online.
The committee minutes database will continue to grow as we scan older minutes before 1973 in our collection.
Images, left to right:
The Joint Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Uninsured held meetings in various Texas cities, such as this one in Harlingen, as they examined the problem of Texans who lack health insurance.
If you’re interested in contested elections, you can use the committee search (http://www.lrl.texas.gov/committees/cmteSearch.cfm) to find election committee records. Election contests usually fall to a select/special committee, like the Special House Committee on Privileges and Elections, 66th R.S., that reviewed the contest between Kae Patrick and Donald Cartwright for the election of a representative from District 57H.
