When a bill is pigeonholed in the Texas Legislature, its chances of becoming law are greatly diminished. Pigeonholing a bill means that a committee has decided that it is not worthy of further consideration. Committees are made up of legislators who specialize in different areas of policy. Sometimes, a bill will be pigeonholed because the committee members believe that the proposal does not fall within their area of expertise. Other times, pigeonholing can be deliberate and political.
The Texas Legislature is very slow about passing bills. That’s why we have committees and subcommittees, which work on specific pieces of legislation and pass bills to move to the next stage of the process. These are called “report” bills. When a committee chair pigeonholes a bill, the bill goes through a process called “first reading.” First reading is just a status report on the bill. A committee chair doesn’t schedule a bill for first reading, but they can hold it over for a later date. The only time a committee chair can hold a bill over for a second or third reading is if a member objects to it. If a committee chair pigeonholes a bill, the bill can be held over for a later date and still make it to the floor for a vote by the full House.
Texas legislators use this process called “pigeonholing” to determine which bills go on the floor for debate in the House and Senate. The purpose of pigeonholing is to have a set of bills with a clear message that makes them easy to pass by a simple majority vote.
Here’s how to pigeonhole a bill:
1. The House sponsor or Senate sponsor assigns a committee of one or more members to the bill.
2. The assigned committee prepares a draft of the bill.
3. The committee then sends the draft to a conference committee.
4. A conference committee is a group of House and Senate conferees who meet to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate bills.
5. If the conference committee agrees, it prepares a compromise version that must then be approved by both chambers of the legislature.
6. Once the House approves the conference report, the Senate does the same. The final product is sent to the governor for his signature.
Finally,
When a committee chair pigeonholes a bill, it often means the death of that bill. Bills that are not given a fair hearing have little chance of being passed, and those that are voted out of committee are very unlikely to be brought up for a vote on the floor. This is because the chairman has the power to decide what bills get heard and which ones die in committee.
