Analysis of Legislation Passing the Texas House

in the 83rd Legislature (2013)

Based on Partisan Affiliation of Author

Key Point: House Republicans authored 67 percent of the major legislation that
eventually became law, with House Democrats authoring the remaining 33
percent of major legislation that was signed into law. Republicans account for
63 percent of all members of the Texas House of Representatives.

Executive Summary

In the 83rd Legislature, Republicans comprised 63 percent of the 150 elected members
of the Texas House of Representatives, with Democrats accounting for the remaining 37
percent of the body. Based solely on that partisan breakdown of the composition of the
Texas House, one might expect Republicans to pass more bills than Democrats.

However, one analysis published by the site Hardhatters - presents numbers that
differ significantly from that breakdown, finding that House Democrats authored or co-
authored 50 percent of the legislation that successfully passed the Texas House and
became law. The analysis published by Hardhatters uses faulty methodology. This
analysis makes two core arguments:

1. It is misleading to credit joint and co-authors for passage of legislation. Joint and
co-authors are added at the discretion of a bills one primary author, and only
with the approval of that one primary author.
2. House Local & Consent bills should be excluded from consideration of partisan
success. Because of House rules & tradition, there is little to no debate or
discussion on those bills.

This analysis also provides figures that more accurately reflect the success rates of
House members based on their party affiliation by considering only primary authors and
only bills from the House Major State & General State Calendars:

Party
Bills Passed
Percentage
Democrat
87
33.08
Republican
176
66.92
Totals:
263
100
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Count One Primary Author, not Joint Authors or Co-Authors

The Hardhatters analysis gives outsized credit for a bills passage to joint or co-authors.
By adding their name to a bill (with approval of the one primary author), a joint or co-
author indicates agreement with the policies of the bills. However, the responsibility of
passing a piece of legislation falls primarily on the bills top-line, first-named author (aka
the primary author) who filed the bill. Joint and co-authors should not count toward
an analysis of success rates based on legislators partisan affiliation. An excerpt from
Rule 8, Section 5 of the House Rules (83rd Legislature) serves to define primary
authorship, and the primary authors authority to allow or designate other members as
joint authors or co-authors. The excerpt of Rule 8, Section 5 underscores that only
primary authors should be counted:

(a) A house bill or resolution may have only one primary author. The signature
of the primary author shall be the only signature that appears on the original
measure and all copies filed with the chief clerk. ...
(b) Any member may become the coauthor of a bill or resolution by securing
permission from the author. ...
(c) The primary author of a measure may designate up to four joint authors...
[emphasis added]

The one primary author of a piece of legislation controls the bill, including which other
members are added as joint authors or co-authors. Authorship especially joint
authorship or co-authorship is neither controlled by nor a reflection on House
leadership.

For example: a bill might be authored by a Republican representative, and may have up
to four joint authors. Presume three of those four joint authors are Republicans, and
one is a Democrat. In that instance, the one primary author is a Republican, and three
of the four joint authors are Republicans as well (meaning 80 percent of the top-five
names on the bill are Republicans).

To illustrate this example, see House Bill 48, which passed the 83rd Legislature (next
page):










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In this case, this pro-Second Amendment legislation was authored and passed by Rep.
Dan Flynn (R) and was jointly authored by three other Republicans and one Democrat
(Rep. Ryan Guillen). All other co-authors, sponsors, and co-sponsors are Republicans. It
would be misleading to credit this bill or countless others like it - as one passed by a
Democrat.

Another example follows:















In the case of House Bill 174, the one primary author who filed the bill is a Democrat,
one of the four joint authors is a Republican (Rep. James White), two of the six co-
authors are Republicans (Rep. Jason Isaac and Rep. Phil Stephenson), and all others
named (including both Senate sponsors) are Democrats. It would be misleading to
characterize House Bill 174 as a Republican bill.

For the purposes of ascertaining which partys members were more successful in
passing legislation, it is misleading to credit joint or co-authors for a bills ultimate
passage, especially co-authors.
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Moreover, it appears the Hardhatters analysis inconsistently applies its methodology by
crediting Democrats for the passage of bills they jointly or co-authored without applying
the same analysis to Republicans. Reversing the Hardhatters methodology crediting
Republicans with passage of bills that they only jointly authored or co- authored would
yield results demonstrating a far higher passage rate for bills authored, jointly authored
or co-authored by Republicans.

Local & Consent: Minimal Debate, Minimal Impact

The Hardhatters analysis counts bills that passed on the House Local & Consent
Calendar. Because of House rules and tradition, legislation that is placed on the Local &
Consent Calendar receives very little, if any, debate or discussion. House Rule 6, Section
7 (83rd Legislature) defines the Local & Consent calendar as follows:

(5) LOCAL, CONSENT, AND RESOLUTIONS CALENDAR, on which shall appear bills,
house resolutions, and concurrent resolutions, not emergency in nature,
regardless of extent and scope, on which there is such general agreement as to
render improbable any opposition to the consideration and passage thereof,
and which have been recommended by the appropriate standing committee for
placement on the local, consent, and resolutions calendar by the Committee on
Local and Consent Calendars. [emphasis added]

An excerpt from House Rule 6, Section 14 (83rd Legislature) further underscores the
point that the Local & Consent calendar is intended for legislation that is neither
controversial nor contested:

(1) The chair shall allow the sponsor of each bill or resolution three minutes to
explain the measure...
(2) If... any bill or resolution on a local, consent, and resolutions calendar is to be
contested on the floor of the house, the chair shall withdraw the bill or
resolution from further consideration and remove it from the calendar.
(3) Any bill or resolution on a local, consent, and resolutions calendar shall be
considered contested if notice is given by five or more members that they intend
to oppose the bill or resolution...
(4) Any bill or resolution on a local, consent, and resolutions calendar shall be
considered contested if debate exceeds 10 minutes...

In practice, bills scheduled on a Local & Consent Calendar receive much less than 10
minutes debate. In fact, most Local & Consent bills are usually explained and passed in
less than three minutes (the amount of time allotted to the sponsor to explain the bill).



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Some examples of Local & Consent bills from the 83rd Legislature follow:

House Bill 64 Rep. Tom Craddick (R) - Relating to the liability of and the validation
of certain acts of the Midland County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1.
House Bill 243 Rep. Jose Menendez (D) - Relating to the authority of a community
center that provides mental health or mental retardation services to sell certain real
property of the center.
House Bill 250 Rep. Doug Miller (R) - Relating to the designation of a segment of
Interstate Highway 35 as the Trooper Randy Vetter Memorial Highway.
House Bill 349 Rep. Terry Canales (D) - Relating to electronically filing any court
document in a criminal case in Hidalgo County.

An accurate analysis of bills passed by House members of the two political parties
should therefore exclude those bills, counting only bills that were scheduled and
debated on the House Major State Calendar or the House General State Calendar,
through which legislation with policy significance or impact is routed.

Conclusion

Based on the partisan composition of the Texas House alone 63 percent Republican
and 37 percent Democrat one should expect that Republicans will author more
enacted, effective legislation than their Democrat colleagues. Of course, many more
factors are at play than a simple partisan breakdown, and not all legislation that passes
the House does so by the same means. The following analysis, therefore, counts only
the top-line, first-named author of a successful bill (the legislator who actually filed the
bill), and only counts legislation that was scheduled on the House Major State Calendar
or the House General State Calendar:

House Major State & General State Calendars

Party
Bills Passed
Percentage
Democrat
87
33.08
Republican
176
66.92
Totals:
263
100

Complete numbers are shown in the appendix.

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Appendix - Complete Analysis

The following analyses attribute the partisan affiliation of legislation that passed the
House in 2013 to only the top-line, first-named author of a successful bill (the legislator
who filed the bill). The figures below do not take into account the partisan affiliation of
any joint or co-authors.
House Major State Calendar
Party
Democrat
Republican
Totals:

Bills Passed
2
10
12

Percentage
16.67
83.33
100

House General State Calendar

Party
Democrat
Republican
Totals:

Bills Passed

Percentage

85
166
251

33.86
66.14
100

House Local & Consent Calendar

Party
Democrat
Republican
Totals:

Bills Passed
195
259
454

Percentage
42.95
57.05
100

All House Bills Passed

Party
Democrat
Republican
Totals:

Bills Passed
282
435
717

Percentage
39.33
60.67
100

House Major State & General State Calendars

Party
Democrat
Republican
Totals:

Bills Passed
87
176

Percentage
33.08
66.92

263

100

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