Texas Legislature Online

Overview

Texas Legislature Online was introduced on December 12, 1996. The legislature is made up of two bodies, the Senate and the House. The Senate has 31 members, and the House has 150. The first session of the Legislature was held from February 16-May 13, 1846. A regular session starts on the 2nd Tuesday in January of each odd-numbered year. The session is limited to 140 days. The governor may call special sessions whenever he wants. A special session is limited to 30 days. A bill that is passed takes effect 90 days after passage or earlier if both houses votes to do so. Members of the legislature are elected into office. Each body has an elected official that presides over them. TLO is used to track the bills through the bodies and learn more about the House and Senate.

Online access 

Contents

• TLO includes information about the Texas House and Senate members, legislation, committees, committee meetings, daily business and agencies.
• Texas Legislation is included and you can lookup bills, view reports, access vote information, and download documents.
• The Calendars are included by specific date, upcoming date, and specific legislature.
• The main feature of TLO is the ability to search. You can search bills, text (bill analyses, fiscal notes, and amendments), amendments, Texas statutes, house and senate journals, Texas Constitution, and the legislative archive system.
• Also, you can sign up for alerts and keep a list of bills you want to watch.

How to Use

You can only find the text and legislative history of bills from 1995 to the present. Make sure when you search that you have the correct legislature chosen.

The Introduced version is the text of the bill as it was first introduced to the legislature. The Engrossed version is the text of the bill after it has passed its originating house of the legislature. The Enrolled version is the text of the bill as it is passed by both houses of the legislature. It is known as the law.

When text is added to a code section, the new text is displayed as underlined. When text is removed from a code section, the old text is displayed as [strikethrough with brackets].

If you don’t know the bill number, search for it using a keyword or by browsing through a list of filed bills. The bill number beings with HB (House bill) or SB (Senate bill). Once you have this number, and then use Bill Lookup. Bill Lookup gives you general and specific information about the bill. This information includes: history, text, actions, companions, amendments, authors, sponsors, captions, and bill stages. Bill stages will let you see where the bill is in the legislative process.

You can save searches and then go back to them in your “MYTLO” page. Also, on the search results page, if you click the Texas map on the side. This gives you the option to add the bill to your Bill List or Alert List.  If you add the bill to your Alert List, then you will receive an email when the bills move.