Article III, Section 37 of the Texas Constitution ("Reference to Committee and Report")

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Adopted February 15, 1876:

No bill shall be considered, unless it has been first referred to a committee and reported thereon, and no bill shall be passed which has not been presented and referred to and reported from a committee at least three days before the final adjournment of the Legislature.

Editor Comments

The Texas Attorney General, in Tex. Att'y Gen. Op. MW-460 (1982), opined that: "We conclude that it is constitutionally impermissible for the legislature to delegate to legislative committees the power to nullify rules proposed or adopted by agencies in the executive branch of government. As a matter of interest we note that a constitutional amendment which would have expressly allowed a delegation of such power to legislative committees was proposed in 1979 but defeated by the people."

—Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

None.

Historic Decisions

Day Land & Cattle Co. v. State, 4 S.W. 865, 873 (Tex. 1887) ("The constitution provides that 'no bill shall be considered, unless it has been first referred . . . . The requirement is that a bill shall be 'referred to a committee, and reported thereon,' before it shall be considered. This, from the averments of the answer, was done, and we cannot, under the wording of the constitution, say that more than this was necessary. If, however, the constitution required a bill to be referred to a committee of each house, and to be reported on before the house making the reference acted on it, it would be conclusively presumed that the legislature complied with the requirements.")

Library Resources

Vernon's Annotated Constitution of the State of Texas (this multi-volume and up-to-date resource is available at all law libraries and many municipal libraries)

The Texas State Constitution: A Reference Guide (this one-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)

The Constitution of the State of Texas: An Annotated and Comparative Analysis (this two-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)

Online Resources

Constitution of the State of Texas (1876) (this resource is published and maintained by the University of Texas School of Law)

Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876 (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Council)

Reports Analyzing Proposed Amendments (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Reference Library)