Texas Legislature Project – Part II – Identify Your Reps & Bills Each has Authored
In Part I of the Texas Legislature Project, you identified a bill that was introduced in the
Texas Legislature and you obtained contact information for the first author and his or her
chief of staff. In Part II, you will collect information about your representatives in the
Texas House and Texas Senate—and a bill each has authored in the 84th legislative
session in 2015.
Your goal in this assignment is to collect information on your representatives, in the
Texas House and Texas Senate. In the book, Citizen’s Handbook to Influencing Elected
Officials, the author, Bradford Fitch, points out repeatedly that your best shot at
influencing a legislator is when you are a constituent, so I want you to also identify your
two representatives in the Texas Legislature and a bill each has authored.
To find who represents you, you will first go to the Texas Tribune’s directory of elected
officials, http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ , then type-in your zip code at the top of
the page titled, “Elected Officials Directory.” On the next page, titled, “Who Represents
Me?” click on the menu link titled, “Find District,” in the top left corner of the page.
Then type in your complete address, click “submit,” and your representatives will be
revealed to you.
To find bills your representatives have submitted, go to http://txlege.texastribune.org/ to
find a pull-down menu titled, “Browse bills by legislator.” One at a time, find your
representatives in the list, and a list of bills will be revealed to you.
In some cases, you may have to read the text of the bill (if you can’t find a summary
elsewhere). To read the text of a bill, go to the TLO website
(http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/) and follow the procedure that I laid out in Part I of the
Texas Legislature Project. Once you have entered “84R – 2015,” the bill number, and
clicked “Go,” then you will have to find a tab titled, “Text.” The “Text” tab will take you
to the bill. It is hell reading a bill, given all of the legalistic language, but if that’s all you
have, then that’s what you have to do.
The Assignment
Title your write-up with the names of your two representatives (e.g., Ellis (S) and Wu
(H)). Here is what you need to include.
Of course, your reps will differ from mine, but follow the sample:
Rodney Ellis (SD-13) and Gene Wu (HD-137)
Gene Wu (Democrat)
Gene.Wu@house.state.tx.us
512-463-0492 (Capitol Office)
713-271-3900 (District Office)
HB325 – Reduced Penalty for Marihuana possession
Gene Wu has authored a bill, HB325, that would reduce the penalty for the possession of
0.35 ounces of marijuana or less to a Class C Misdemeanor. Under current law, the
penalty for possession of 2 ounces or less of marijuana is a Class B Misdemeanor. The
bill has been referred to committee (Criminal Jurisprudence), but no action has been
taken on the bill (as of early March 2015).
Rodney Ellis (Democrat)
Rodney.ellis@senate.state.tx.us
512-463-0113 (Capitol Office)
713-236-0306 (District Office)
SB426 – A Limited Tax Holiday from Taxes on Goods Needed in Schools
The bill would define a weekend 15 days prior to the start of school where clothes and
shoes, valued less than $200, could be purchased tax-free, as well as computers, iPads,
and laptops, provided these electronic devices were not bought online. The bill has been
referred to committee (Finance), but no action has been taken on the bill (as of early
March 2015).