Focus Report, Volume 75, Number 4, January 1997 Page: 6
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Page 6 House Research Organization
consideration. If a calendars committee votes not to
place a bill on a calendar, the committee is not
precluded from voting later to place the same bill on a
calendar. All requirements applicable to substantive
committees, including advance notice of meetings,
opening all meetings to the public, press and other
members and requiring a quorum and a record vote to
take action, apply specifically to the calendars
committees. No motion is in order that would prevent
a calendars committee from placing a bill on a calendar
(Rule 6, sec. 20; Rule 4, sec. 25).
If the Local and Consent Calendars Committee
decides that a bill or resolution does not belong on the
Local or Consent calendars, it forwards the legislation
to the Calendars Committee (Rule 6, sec. 22).
The Calendars Committee may place a bill on one of
three daily calendars for floor consideration -
Emergency, Major State or General State. Joint
resolutions proposing amendments to the Texas
Constitution or ratification of proposed amendments to
the United States Constitution are placed on the
Constitutional Amendments Calendar (Rule 6, sec. 7).
Bills placed on the Emergency Calendar (including
tax bills and the general appropriations bill) are
considered first, in the order in which they appear on
the daily calendar. Next in order are measures placed
on the Major State Calendar, the Constitutional
Amendments Calendar and the General State Calendar.
The Calendars Committee may make exceptions to the
order in which calendars are considered. For
consideration of other measures, the calendar order is
the Local Calendar, the Consent Calendar, the
Resolutions Calendar and the Congratulatory and
Memorial Resolutions Calendar (Rule 6, sec. 7, 15).
Daily calendars
For bills referred to the Calendars Committee, only
those that appear on a daily calendar that is distributed
in advance to House members may be considered on the
floor. Once a bill appears on a printed daily calendar,
it retains its place in the lineup of bills set for
consideration and cannot be displaced by any other bill
(Rule 6, sec. 17).
A daily calendar must be distributed to each
member's newspaper mailbox at least 36 hours in
advance during a regular session - 24 hours during
special sessions - of the scheduled consideration on
that calendar. Local, Consent and Resolutions calendarsmust be distributed 48 hours in advance of
consideration (Rule 6, secs. 13, 16).
Supplemental daily calendars may be distributed up
to two hours before that day's session. Supplemental
calendars may include only bills postponed from a
previous calendar day, unfinished business, bills that
were on the previous day's calendar but were not
considered and bills passed to third reading the previous
legislative day. Bills on the daily calendar eligible for
consideration are also incorporated into the
supplemental calendar. The time that the calendars are
distributed must be stamped on the original copies
(Rule 6, sec. 16).
For a bill to be considered on second reading, a
printed copy must have been placed in each member's
newspaper mailbox at least 36 hours in advance during a
regular session, 24 hours in advance during special
sessions. The general appropriations bill must be
placed in the members' mailboxes 168 hours before
second reading consideration, 72 hours during a special
session. (Rule 8, sec. 14).
Rules for floor consideration
The Calendars Committee may propose special rules
for floor consideration of bills on the daily calendar.
This provision has most often been used in recent
sessions to limit amendments to the general
appropriation bill by requiring that any amendment
adding money to an item also propose a corresponding
decrease in another item. A proposed rule may be
considered by the House anytime after it has been
distributed to the members and before consideration of
the affected bill. The rule cannot be amended and must
be approved by a majority vote of the members present
to be effective (Rule 6, sec. 16(f)).
Placing bills on the calendar by floor
motion
When a bill has been in a calendars committee for
30 calendar days, not counting the day it was referred,
any member may offer a motion on the House floor to
place a bill on a daily calendar or a local, consent or
resolutions calendar, whichever is applicable, without
action by the calendars committee. The motion must be
seconded by at least five members and adopted by
majority vote. The motion is debatable, with one mover
and one opponent each given three minutes to debate
only the motion, not the merits of the bill (Rule 6,
sec. 21; Rule 7, sec. 2).0
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Page 6
House Research Organization
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Texas. Legislature. House of Representatives. Research Organization. Focus Report, Volume 75, Number 4, January 1997, periodical, January 30, 1997; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth640680/m1/6/?q=%22~1~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.