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Use Twitter to Stay Current on the Texas Legislature

Twitter can serve as an excellent tool to stay current on topics that interest you. 
 
This list provides information on various organizations that use Twitter to share information on Texas legislative developments.  The list is not comprehensive, but will serve as a starting point to help you discover other Twitter sites on this topic.   
 
Texas Legislative Reference Library
We tweet about the legislative process and share reports and news on issues of legislative interest.
 
The Texas Legislature
Up-to-the-moment information about Texas bills and committee meetings.
 
Texas Legislators list
We've collected the feeds of Texas legislators who use Twitter into one list, making it easy to follow multiple individuals in one location. 
 
State agencies with a social media presence - Texas.gov
State agencies may post about legislative developments during session.  Use this link to see which state agencies have Twitter feeds.  
 
News and journals:
Many regional newspapers use Twitter to share information about Texas political developments.  Here are feeds by some of the larger Texas newspapers:
 
Fort Worth Star Telegram: http://twitter.com/#!/txpolitics
 
You will also find feeds specializing in regional politics:
 
mySA Politics (San Antonio) http://twitter.com/#!/mySA_Politics
Texas Watchdog (Houston politics): http://twitter.com/#!/texaswatchdog
 
Several journals specializing in Texas politics and government use Twitter to post updates about news and articles:
 
LegeLand (Austin Chronicle): http://twitter.com/legeland
Texas Public Policy Foundation: http://twitter.com/tppf
 
And finally….
 
Multi-state trends
If you are interested in tracking developments in state legislatures across the U.S., the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is a good resource.  NCSL is a bipartisan organization that reports on legislative news and developments in all 50 states. 
 
National Conference of State Legislatures
 

Membership Statistics for the 82nd Legislature

Membership Statistics for the first day of the 82nd Legislature:

Description House
Members***
Senate
Members
Total
Gender *
Male 118 25 143
Female 32 6 38
Party affiliation *
Democrat 49 12 61
Republican 101 19 120
Incumbency **
Incumbents 113 29 142
Freshmen 35 2 37
Age *
Under 30 2   0
30 - 39 21   0 21 
40 - 49 35   4   39 
50 - 59 54   13   67 
60 - 69 32   13   45 
70 and over 6   1  

* Gender, party affiliation, and age calculations are based on the membership as of the first day of session: 01/11/2011.

** Incumbent totals include members who served the previous session. Freshman totals include members whose first terms began the first day of session: 01/11/2011.

    Not included as incumbent or freshman:
  • Rep. William 'Bill' Zedler (first served in 78th session)
  • Rep. Borris Miles (first served in 80th session)
  • Rep. Jim Murphy (first served in 80th session)

 

*** Rep. Edmund Kuempel died on 11/4/2010. He was elected to the 82nd House of Representatives on 11/2/2010. He is not included in the statistics above.

You can find statistics for earlier sessions at http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/sessions/memberStatistics.cfm

 

Week in review

In this weekly post, we will feature online articles and policy reports published recently, and other helpful research tools.

  • Discover how prepared public health departments are in a report about emergency health preparedness. (Trust for America's Health, December 2010)
  • Map the economy based on foreclosure rates, unemployment rates, and median household income.  (NPR, 2010)
  • Explore how the effectiveness of juvenile justice programs might be improved with evidence-based practices. (Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, December 2010)
  • Get recent data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics on school crime and safety. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 2010)
  • Note that Texas leads the nation in executions (Stateline, December 2010 )

More Interim Reports Arriving

House, Senate, and Joint committee reports continue to arrive.

In the past week, we have received reports from the following committees:

House Committee on Business & Industry
House Committee on Corrections
Joint Interim Select Committee on Criminal Commitments of Individuals with Mental Retardation
House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
House Committee on Defense & Veterans' Affairs
House Select Committee on Emergency Preparedness
House Committee on Environmental Regulation
House Select Committee on Fiscal Stability
House Committee on General Investigating and Ethics
House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence
Senate Committee on Jurisprudence
House Committee on Natural Resources
House Committee on Public Education
House Committee on Public Health
House Committee on State Affairs

 Looking for another report?  The LRL's Legislative Reports database contains interim committee charges, reports, and other substantive legislative studies published in the House and Senate Journals back to 1846. You may search by committee list, committee name, charge text, or subject.

Bill Status Hotline Opens January 11

The Legislative Reference Library will open the bill status hotline on Tuesday, January 11, at 12:00 noon for the 82nd legislative session.
 
The toll-free telephone service is a resource for the citizens of Texas to obtain information about the status of pending bills and resolutions, committee schedules and hearings, elected officials and their contact information, the legislative process, and online legislative resources.  The service will be available through the end of session, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, with extended hours when either chamber is in session. Texans may reach the hotline by calling:
 
   877-824-7038    (toll-free in Texas)      or       512-463-2182    (in Austin or outside of Texas)

New laws take effect January 1, 2011

The beginning of 2011 will bring some new laws, including an increase in the minimum coverage requirements for auto insurance, as legislation passed during the 80th and 81st legislative sessions goes into effect.  

 Taking effect January 1, 2011:

  • HB 2347, 81st Legislature, Regular Session
    Relating to tuition and fee exemptions at public institutions of higher education for certain peace officers enrolled in criminal justice or law enforcement course work and for certain educational aides.
    Sections 1 and 3 take effect January 1, 2011; the rest of the act took effect on June 19, 2009.
  • HB 2774, 81st Legislature, Regular Session
    Relating to self-directed and semi-independent status of state financial regulatory agencies and the licensing and regulation of certain persons involved in residential mortgage lending; making an appropriation; providing a penalty.
    This Act took effect September 1, 2009, except Section 5 took effect April 1, 2010, and Sections 9 and 12 take effect January 1, 2011.
  • HB 4833, 81st Legislature, Regular Session
    Relating to the creation of district courts and statutory county courts and to the composition of juvenile boards in certain counties.
    This Act took effect September 1, 2009, except Sections 4 and 10 took effect October 1, 2009; Section 5 took effect December 15, 2009; Section 6 took effect September 1, 2010; Section 7 took effect November 1, 2010; Sections 2 and 15 take effect January 1, 2011, excluding Section 15(c), which took effect September 1, 2009; and Section 12 takes effect September 1, 2011.
  • SB 873, 81st Legislature, Regular Session
    Relating to a requirement that certain appraisal districts provide for electronic filing of and electronic communications regarding a protest of appraised value by the owner of a residence homestead.
  • HB 473  80th Legislature, Regular Session.  Relating to benefits provided under the workers' compensation system, including fee guidelines for medical benefits and payment of benefits under interlocutory orders.
    This Act took effect September 1, 2007, except Section 413.011(d-4), Labor Code, as added by this Act, takes effect January 1, 2011.
  • HB 4139, 80th Legislature, Regular Session
    Relating to the creation of a county court at law in Van Zandt County.
  • SB 502, 80th Legislature, Regular Session
    Relating to minimum insurance coverage amounts to establish evidence of financial responsibility under the Texas Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act and to providing information with regard to compliance with the Act.  
To keep up with new laws throughout the year, check the Library's list of bill effective dates.

New Interim Reports

Between legislative sessions, the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House assign charges to committees, directing the committees to conduct in-depth studies of significant issues, to review the effectiveness of new legislation, and to develop legislative proposals for the next session.  The interim reports produced by the committees are now arriving in the library. 

The library has received reports from the following committees:

Senate Committee on Agriculture & Rural Affairs
Senate Committee on Business and Commerce
Senate Committee on Education
Senate Committee on Government Organization
Senate Committee on Health and Human Services
Senate Committee on Higher Education
Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Relations
Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee on Flooding and Evacuations
Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs and Military Installations
Joint Committee on Aging
Joint Committee on Dyslexia and Related Disorders

Looking for an older interim report?  The LRL's Legislative Reports database contains interim committee charges, reports, and other substantive legislative studies published in the House and Senate Journals back to 1846. You may search by committee list, committee name, charge text, or subject.

Texas Legislators: Past & Present featured in NCSL Webinar

The LRL's Texas Legislators: Past & Present database was recently featured in a webinar presented by the National Conference of State Legislatures' Research Librarians Staff Section.

The webinar focused on legislative member database projects in Texas and Minnesota. Speakers Melanie Harshman, Administrative Librarian for the Legislative Reference Library of Texas, and Elizabeth Lincoln, Deputy Director of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, offered ideas for how to begin collecting information for a database, where to find useful sources, and how to deal with challenges along the way.  

The archived presentation is available here.

Welcome to our New Site!

Welcome to the redesigned LRL website!

During the redesign process, we have focused on making the site easier to use. New search and navigation options include:

  • More informative menu categories
  • Drop down menus to show the major sections in each category
  • Menus on the left side of each second-level page which contain links to other pages within each category
  • The ability to search Legislative Archive System and the Library catalog from the home page
We've also added some new content.  New features include:

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