TCAN

One of the House committees that TCAN is following closely this session is the Elections Committee. This committee meets every week on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. or upon adjournment in room E2.028. If the House is still in session at the time of the scheduled hearing, the hearing is delayed and may start any time after the House concludes its work for the day.

The Elections Committee has purview over most elections-related legislation as well as legislation involving campaign finance and ethics. According to the Texas State website, the committee has seven members, with jurisdiction over all matters pertaining to:

1. the right of suffrage in Texas;
2. primary, special, and general elections;
3. revision, modification, amendment, or change of the Election Code;
4. the secretary of state in relation to elections;
5. campaign finance;
6. the duties and conduct of candidates for public office and of persons with an interest in influencing public policy; and
7. the following state agencies: the Office of the Secretary of State and the Texas Ethics Commission.

Frequently, resource witnesses will be called to testify before the committee to answer questions related to rules, procedures, policies and past legislation as implemented. The two main resource witness called before the Elections Committee are the Secretary of State’s Office and the Texas Ethics Commission.

Every week, the committee clerk posts a notice listing the bills that will be heard before the committee at the next meeting. Posting rules require that a notice of a public hearing be posted at least five calendar days before the hearing during a regular session. The hearings are public and therefore the public is welcome to testify for or against any piece of legislation being considered before the committee. If one or more of the bills being heard before a committee has strong opposition or strong support, hearings can take a long time. It is not unusual for contentious hearings to last several hours and even through the night.

Sometimes citizens want to show support or opposition to a bill, but they don’t wish to give oral testimony before the committee. Witness affirmation forms are provided by the committee clerk at the beginning of a committee hearing. All witnesses wishing to speak before the committee, or those wishing to register their position on a bill, have to fill out a witness affirmation form in person. That form is signed by the person and handed to the committee clerk. When the bill that the affirmation pertains to is called up, the person will be allowed to testify, or their affirmation and position on the bill will be read into the record. The witness list for a bill hearing is produced from those forms.

There are about 5,000 bills filed each session, so a majority of bills filed never get a hearing. Most bills are referred to committee, but the determination of which bills get a hearing before the committee is at the discretion of the Chair of that committee.

An archive of the committee notices, minutes, and witness list is maintained on the committee’s website. This archive is useful as a review of pending legislation as well as research on groups favoring or opposing legislation. In addition, committee hearings are taped by the House, and meetings can be viewed over the Internet. Live broadcasts of committee hearings are posted on the media section of theTexas House’ main website the day of the hearing. Past election committee hearings are archived and available for viewing at any time.

TCAN is tracking many bills of interest to us on both the election reform agenda and the ethics reform agenda.The University of Texas Libraries system has created a very good informational website on Texas Politics that explains the Legislative Branch and the particular functions of committees.