The structure of the Texas executive branch is centralized with much formal authority

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Texas State Web Sites

• State Agencies, Departments, Commissions, etc. (including Executive, Legislative, and Judicial offices)
  • Organized Alphabetically
  • Organized by Subject

Publications: Constitution, Laws, Rules & Regulations, etc.

• The Texas Constitution (Texas Legislature Online)
  • This version reflects changes made by amendments approved by the voters in November 2019.
  • Also available online via WestlawNext Campus Research database: Vernon’s Annotated Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas(ASU authorized users only)
  • Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876 (via Texas Legislative Council)
• Texas Administrative Code (via Secretary of State)
  • Compilation of all state agency rules in Texas
• Texas Register
  • State Rules and Open Meetings (via Secretary of State)
  • Back issue archive (1991-current) (University of North Texas)
  • Emergency, proposed, and adopted rules
  • Notices of withdrawn and repealed rules
  • Notices of rule review and other information submitted by state agencies for publication
• Open Meetings (via Secretary of State)
  • Originally, notices of open meetings were published in the print version of the Texas Register. In November, 1998, these notices were removed from the print Texas Register and published through the Secretary of State’s web site only.
• Texas Statutes (via Texas Legislative Council)
  • Current through the 87th Texas Legislature
  • Also available online via Westlaw Campus Research database > State Materials > Texas > Texas Statutes & Court Rules (ASU authorized users only)
• Texas State Publications Annual Indexes
  • Texas State Library
  • Index to Texas government documents, 1994-2004
  • Also available in paper in the Documents/Reference Collection in the Basement in the Government Documents Area: Docs/Ref. Z1223.5 .T47

General Texas Information

• Texas.gov
  • Texas.gov is the official website of Texas state government.

Executive Branch

• “The Executive Department of the State shall consist of a Governor, who shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the State, a Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Commissioner of the General Land Office, and Attorney General.” (Texas Constitution. Art. 4. Sec. 1. Amended Nov. 7, 1995.)
• Office of the Governor
• Office of the Lieutenant Governor
• Office of the Secretary of State
• Comptroller of Public Accounts (“Window on State Government”)
• General Land Office
• Attorney General of Texas

Legislative Branch

• “The Legislative power of this State shall be vested in a Senate and House of Representatives, which together shall be styled ‘The Legislature of the State of Texas.’” (Texas Constitution. Art. 3. Sec. 1)
• Texas Senate
  • Office of the Lieutenant Governor
• Texas House of Representatives
  • Speaker of the House
  • House Research Organization
    • An independent administrative department of the Texas House of Representatives and a nonpartisan source of impartial information on legislation and issues considered by the Texas Legislature
    • Floor reports, focus reports, bill analyses, constitutional amendment analyses
    • All Publications includes links to online versions of HRO documents and indexes to all publications
• Texas State Auditor’s Office
  • The SAO is one of five legislative support agencies. It operates under the oversight of the Legislative Audit Committee, chaired jointly by the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. (Mission)
•  Legislative Budget Board
  • All Budget Documents by Session
  • State Revenue and Spending
    
    • Texas state government is an enormously complex undertaking. The state takes in over $250 billion a year in revenue coming from over 60 different taxes, fees and assessments. Most of that money goes out to pay for services and activities such as road construction, professional licensing, prisons and university research.
    • Use the dashboard tool to access sources of state government revenue and expenditure data dating back ten years. Specific categories of data include revenues, expenditures, payments to payee, travel payments and state-level economic development.

• Legislative Reference Library of Texas
• Texas Ethics Commission
  • The Texas Ethics Commission serves as a repository of required disclosure statements for state officials, candidates, political committees, and lobbyists and consequently, serves as a clearinghouse of information for public and press inquiries.
  • Texas Ethics Reporter
    • From the University of Houston Law Center
    • Links to other Texas legal ethics materials are available on the Legal Information Institute site (Cornell University
• Texas Legislative Council
  • The Texas Legislative Council provides bill drafting, computing, research, publishing, and document distribution services to the Texas Legislature and legislative agencies.
• Texas Legislature Online
  • Provided by the Texas Legislative Council
  • Who represents me?
    • “Who Represents Me” provides information about current districts and members of the Texas Senate, Texas House of Representatives, the Texas delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives, and the State Board of Education.
  • Legislative Process
  • General (Legislative) Reports — Includes links to reports for the 71st (1989)-79th(2005-20060 Legislatures
  • “How to Follow a Bill Using TLO”
  • Legislation
    • Bill status; bill lists by Author, Committee, and Subject
    • Search bills by bill number, subject, author, committee, or keyword
  • MyTLO
    • The MyTLO section of the Texas Legislature Online website offers personalized viewing of legislative content, including Bill Lists, Bill Alerts, Other Alerts, and RSS feeds for legislative content. Some of these services require registration, but are free of charge.
•  Texas Redistricting
  
  • Provided by the Texas Legislative Council
•  Sunset Advisory Commission
  
  • Sunset is the regular assessment by the Legislature of the continuing need for a state agency to exist. While most oversight is concerned with agency compliance with legislative policies, Sunset asks a more basic question: Do the agency’s functions continue to be needed?

Judicial Branch

• “The judicial power of this State shall be vested in one Supreme Court, in one Court of Criminal Appeals, in Courts of Appeals, in District Courts, in County Courts, in Commissioners Courts, in Courts of Justices of the Peace, and in such other courts as may be provided by law. The Legislature may establish such other courts as it may deem necessary and prescribe the jurisdiction and organization thereof, and may conform the jurisdiction of the district and other inferior courts thereto.” (Texas Constitution. Art. 5. Sec. 1. Amended Aug. 11, 1891, Nov. 8, 1977, and Nov. 4, 1980.)
• Attorney General of Texas
• Supreme Court of Texas
• Court of Criminal Appeals (Texas Courts Online)
• Texas Trial Courts
  • Trial Courts
  • Municipal Courts of Record
  • Specialty Courts
  • Multi-District Litigation Panel
• State Bar of Texas
• State Commission on Judicial Conduct
• Texas Board of Law Examiners
• Texas Judicial Council Directory
• Texas State Law Library

Other Texas Resources

• Texas Demographic Center (TDC)
  • The TDC functions as a focal point for the production, interpretation, and distribution of demographic information for Texas. The TDC produces and disseminates population estimates and projections for Texas, as well as other demographic information. Special emphasis is placed on data that may be useful to policy makers in dealing with issues regarding the demand for State services.
• Texas Association of Counties
  • Serves as a central source for county data. Includes county data, maps, and an elections database.
• Texas County Highway Maps
  • The General Libraries and the Geography Department at The University of Texas at Austin
• Electronic State Business Daily (Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts)
  • Texas state agencies post large procurement opportunities in one online location

Government Documents Home

Updated: August 2021, by Kimberly Wirth, Coordinator of Information Literacy/Research Librarian

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