Texas Senate
Eighty-eighth Texas Legislature
Type
Type	Upper house of the Texas Legislature
Term limits	None
History
New session started	January 10, 2023
Leadership
President	Dan Patrick (R) since January 20, 2015
President pro tempore	Charles Schwertner (R) since May 29, 2023
Majority Leader	Angela Paxton (R) since September 16, 2023
Minority Leader	Carol Alvarado (D) since January 8, 2020
Structure
Seats	31
Political groups	Majority   Republican (19) Minority   Democratic (11)
Length of term	4 years (with one 2-year term each decade)
Authority	Article 3, Texas Constitution
Salary	$7,200/year + per diem
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
Last election	November 8, 2022 (31 seats)
Next election	November 5, 2024 (15 seats)
Redistricting	Legislative control
Meeting place
State Senate Chamber Texas State Capitol Austin, Texas
Website
Texas State Senate

The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature, with the Texas House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, they compose the state legislature of the state of Texas.

There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 940,000 per constituency, based on the 2020 U.S. Census. Elections are held in even-numbered years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

There are no term limits. Terms are four years in length, with one two-year term each decade. Senators are divided into two groups based in part on the intervening Census:

• In elections in years ending in 2 (the election after the Census), all 31 seats are up for election.
• Once the Senate meets in session after said election, the Senators will participate in a drawing to determine their election cycle:
  • One-half will have a 2-4-4 cycle, whereupon the seat would stand for election in two years (the year ending in 4), followed by two four-year cycles (the years ending in 8 and 2).
  • The other half will have a 4-4-2 cycle, whereupon the seat would stand for election in four years (the year ending in 6), followed by another four-year cycle (the year ending in 0) but then the seat would stand for election in only two years (the year ending in 2).

As such, every two years, about half of the Texas Senate is on the ballot.

The Senate meets at the Texas State Capitol in Austin. The Republicans currently control the chamber, which is made up of 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats.

Leadership

The Lieutenant Governor of Texas serves as the President of the Senate. Unlike most lieutenant governors who are constitutionally designated as presiding officers of the upper house, the Lieutenant Governor regularly presides over the chamber rather than delegate this role to the President Pro Tempore. The Lieutenant Governor's duties include appointing chairs of committees, committee members, assigning and referring bills to specific committees, recognizing members during debate, and making procedural rulings. The Lieutenant Governor may also cast a vote should a Senate floor vote end in a tie. If the Senate votes to dissolve itself into the Committee of the Whole, in which all members are part of the Committee, the President Pro-Tempore presides over the proceedings, with the Lieutenant Governor acting as a regular voting member. Due to the various powers of committee selection and bill assignment, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas is considered one of the most powerful lieutenant governorships in the United States.

Unlike other state legislatures, the Texas Senate does not include majority or minority leaders. Instead, the President Pro Tempore is considered the second most powerful position, and can be reserved to any political party in the chamber regardless if the party is a majority or not. Presidents Pro Tempore are usually the most senior members of the Senate. The President Pro Tempore presides when the Lieutenant Governor is not present or when the legislature is not in regular session.

History

Committee structure

The following represents the Senate committee structure for the 88th Legislature (numbers in parentheses are the number of committee members, as appointed by the President of the Texas Senate).^[3]

• Administration (7)
• Border Security (5)
• Business and Commerce (11)
• Criminal Justice (7)
• Education (13)
  • Under this Committee, a Subcommittee on Higher Education (5)
• Finance (17)
• Health & Human Services (9)
• Jurisprudence (5)
• Local Government (9)
• Natural Resources and Economic Development (9)
• Nominations (9)
• State Affairs (11)
• Transportation (9)
• Veteran Affairs (7)
• Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs (9)

In addition to these committees, there are also six joint committees composed of members of both the State Senate and House:

• Criminal Justice Legislative Oversight
• Legislative Audit Committee^{[4][note 1]}
• Legislative Budget Board^{[5][note 2]}
• Legislative Reference Library Board^{[6][note 3]}
• Sunset Advisory Commission
• Texas Legislative Council^{[7][note 4]}

Current composition

Senate districts and party affiliation after the 2022 election

  Republican Party

  Democratic Party

Past composition of the Senate

The Senate was continuously held by Democrats from the end of the Reconstruction era until the Seventy-fifth Texas Legislature was seated in 1997, at which point Republicans took control. The Republican Party has maintained its control of the Senate since then.

See also

• Texas Legislature
• Texas House of Representatives
• List of presidents pro tempore of the Texas Senate
• Texas Government Newsletter, voting history of the Texas Legislature.

Notes

References

External links

• Media related to Senate at Wikimedia Commons
• Official Texas Senate website

30°16′28″N 97°44′24″W / 30.274537°N 97.739906°W / 30.274537; -97.739906