The Texas Legislative Council is a legislative agency that provides legal services to state legislators and to the Legislature as a whole.
The Legislative Council employs staff attorneys who assist legislators in researching and drafting proposed legislation. This work is generally confidential and subject to attorney-client privilege. The bill-drafting process is exempt from the usual requirements of Texas public information law.
In addition to bill drafting, attorneys for the Legislative Council help lawmakers write other legislative documents, including resolutions, floor amendments, committee amendments, bill substitutes, conference committee reports, and legal memoranda.
During the legislative process, the Legislative Council fulfills a variety of functions to help lawmakers understand the impacts of bills under consideration, including legal analyses and side-by-side comparisons of different versions of bills.
The Legislative Council also provides technology support to the Legislature, and printing and document production services. It further produces a variety of publications available to the general public.
During redistricting, the Legislative Council provides data, mapping, and digital services to create demographic profiles and maps of the various legislative districts.
Governing Body
The Legislative Council describes itself as a “nonpartisan” state agency that serves as a source of “impartial” research and information. However, as a legislative agency, the council is under the control of the Texas House and Senate and the respective leaders of those two parts of the legislature.
The governing body of the council consists of the lieutenant governor (leader of the Senate), speaker of the House of Representatives, six senators appointed by the lieutenant governor, the chairman of the House administration committee, and five other members of the House of Representatives appointed by the speaker.
Except for the lieutenant governor and the speaker, each member serves a term beginning on the date of the member’s appointment and ending with the convening of the first regular session that occurs after the date of appointment. The lieutenant governor and speaker act as the governing body of the council during a regular legislative session.
