The March 8 deadline for filing bills to be debated this session left lawmakers with more than 7,400 bills and resolutions, a lower number than in some past sessions—by comparison, more than 12,000 pieces of legislation were filed in 2009.

The biggest reduction comes from the number of resolutions, not bills, being filed. Simple resolutions are congratulatory statements and memorials, while bills propose new laws.

Unlike the bills, which are subject to the filing deadline (unless lawmakers suspend the rules with a supermajority), resolutions can be filed at any time.

In 2009, for example, lawmakers had filed 934 simple resolutions through March 15 of that year. This session, that count is a little higher: 1,073 resolutions.

There are about 2,000 fewer bills than there were in 2009, but those numbers tend to fluctuate year after year.

The Lege could still see an avalanche of resolutions hit the Legislative Council, which processes the bills and resolutions, before the end of the session, bringing the total count back up.

Getting down to business

A few weeks after committees began hearing testimony on bills and approving them for floor debate, the Texas House has released its first non-emergency floor calendar of the session.

This is what lawmakers do when they are on the House floor, and is the part that gets the most attention.

The first day of floor debate comes March 19, with two bills that likely will not grab headlines: One would create a UT campus in South Texas by uniting three existing UT campuses in the area. The other deals with small claims courts.

On Wednesday, things pick up somewhat with the Public Utility Commission's sunset bill. Debates are sure to be heated on issues such as utility rates, blackouts, and capital investment. The sunset bills are usually so broadly worded that they are natural magnets for related amendments—any piece of energy-related policy that lawmakers think may not make it out of committee could potentially be attached to the sunset bill.

The House and Senate have both passed an emergency budget bill and had floor discussions on their rules of engagement, so it is not going to be the very first floor argument of the session.

But it will mean longer days in session now that there are bills to debate, and that no doubt will placate a public prone to believing that if lawmakers are not on the House or Senate floor, they are not working.

An imbalance on one House committee

In the Texas House, women represent about 20 percent of the membership—roughly 30 out of 150 legislators. As such, they cannot dominate all 38 standing committees, which vet bills and hear testimony before legislation is approved for floor debate.

Every lawmaker serves on at least two committees—some as many as four—to make sure there is a woman on each committee.

The juggling of committee appointments that goes on in the House Speakers office in the months leading up to the session is formidable. The Speaker must take into account seniority appointments, in which he has no leeway, as well as his own picks for various panels.

He has to make sure the panels and committee chairs are diverse and representative of the House in terms of gender, ethnicity, party and geography. The Speaker tries to do the same with the committee membership, but sometimes the assignments miss that mark.

The House Business and Industry Committee, previously led by Rep. Helen Giddings, D-Dallas, is one example.

Currently, all seven members are men—a fact not lost on Chairman Rene Oliveira, a Brownsville Democrat who recently complained about having to deal with "you seven mugs" instead of having the input of one of the "smart, lovely ladies of the House."

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Commerce showed that between 1997–2007, the number of women-owned businesses grew twice as fast as those owned by men, adding roughly 500,000 jobs to the economy.

Quote of the week

"Your friend, Diego." —First-grader Diego Rodriguez, of Ford Elementary School in Georgetown, at the conclusion of his testimony before a panel of House lawmakers in support of designating pecan pie an official state symbol. Diego read a letter he had written and won over legislators on the House Culture, Recreation and Tourism committee. Several classmates also testified in support of the bill the students created.