The Capitol - At Your Fingertips
Legislative Council Server continues to provide
valued information after the session's end
Sue Polanka

One hundred forty days have come and gone, and we are all wondering just what happened to those bills we were tracking throughout the session. It is still possible to get daily updates to legislative information through the Texas Legislature Online, the website of the Texas Legislative Council. Visit the Texas Legislature Online at: http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/.

The Texas Legislature Online is the best source for legislative information even though the session is over. Bills from the 73rd-75th sessions can be searched by subject, keyword, sponsor, committee, or bill number. Choose the options of Bill Text, Search for Bills by, and View Individual Bill Information* to search the full text of bills and their current status.

If the 75th Legislature had gone into any called sessions this year, so too would the Texas Legislature Online. The same search options would be available for all bills and resolutions introduced in any called sessions. The only difference would be the default time period in which one would search. The current default is the 75th Legislature, Regular Session. In a First Called Session, this would be the default on the Texas Legislature Online.

Two new options will be available on the Texas Legislature Online by mid-June. A list of bills passed by the 75th Legislature will be available with the full text of the bill as it was passed. This will be searchable by bill number, author, and subject. Unfortunately, a record of the votes is not available online. Users will need to look in the Texas House or Senate Journals for this information, which can be found at the Legislative Reference Library or the Texas State Library.

A long-awaited subject and keyword search engine for the Texas codes, statutes, and Constitution will also be available in June. Users will be able to search the text of all of the laws in Texas using Boolean logic, subject or concept terms, and other advanced techniques such as proximity operators and truncation. Search for a word in an individual code or in all of the codes and statutes at one time.

Remember--this information is only updated through the 74th Legislature, Regular Session. New laws will not be codified until January or February 1998, so, to get the most recent information, make sure to search for any relevant bill text which may pertain to your subject.

The Texas Legislature Online is also a good source for other legislative information. Search the FYI-Find Your Incumbent option to find your representative in the Texas Senate or House, U.S. Congress, or State Board of Education. FYI is searchable by zip code, street address, city, county, district number, or name. FYI Find Your Incumbent contains 1990 census data for each legislative district in Texas. Look here for population breakdowns by age, sex, and race.

Read up on the history and restoration of the Capitol Building and find the daily events at the Capitol using the Capitol events option. A legislative glossary, legislative dates of interest, and explanations of how a bill becomes a law are available using the General Legislative Information option. Or, select the Other State Legislatures option to link to additional legislative information across the United States.

Access to other state law-making bodies can also be found using the Legislative Hotline Directory. Look for this directory in the annual State Legislative Sourcebook published by Government Research Service. Here you will find a list of phone numbers for legislative information in all 50 states.

If you need more information on the Texas Legislature Online, or other government-related Internet sites, please contact Sue Polanka at the Texas State Library by phone at (512) 463-6623 or via e-mail at Sue.Polanka@tsl.state.tx.us.