Difference Between State Senate and House of Representatives

Indivisible States: How State Legislatures Piece of work

If yous know how one land legislature works… then you know how 1 state legislature works. Country legislatures are like miniature Congresses — just no two are exactly alike. This section volition highlight how country legislators recall, and the similarities and differences between state legislatures.

What Motivates Your State Legislators?

• Land legislators intendance virtually re-election. Merely like your federal representatives, your country legislators are elected past their constituents. Therefore, they demand your vote in lodge to remain in (or win) office. This is the primary source of your ability.

• State legislators care about passing bills. Legislators oftentimes consider the number of bills they go signed into law every bit a mensurate of their success. This can be problematic because it can bulldoze a civilisation of compromise that drives them to water down otherwise adept bills so the legislators to merits a win. Sometimes legislators demand pressure to hold strong against bad amendments, not just to vote the correct fashion on the terminal beak.

• State legislators oft are not used to hearing from constituents. With some exceptions (such as when a controversial neb is moving), state legislatures do not receive much media attention — which means that many constituents do not know what is going on. Every bit a event, people don't ordinarily appoint in the state legislative process, and legislators are more than often responsive to lobbyists in the capitol than their own constituents. Replacing apathy with activism presents an enormous opportunity for you to make an impact at your statehouse.

• State legislators are influenced by money and lobbying. Because state legislators don't receive much media attention compared to national politicians, they likewise aren't the benefactors of grassroots fundraising attention. This opens upward the floodgates for lobbyists and PACs to fund campaigns, fifty-fifty amongst Democrats. Again, this presents an opportunity: even a slight increase in grassroots fundraising for progressive state legislators could make a deviation for them.

• State legislatures are seen every bit a pipeline for college office. Many national politicians start their careers in state legislatures. Xx-two former U.S. Presidents (including President Obama!), 22 erstwhile Vice Presidents, 44 current sitting Senators, and 220 current Congressional representatives served in state legislatures before moving to national role. If your state has term limits for state offices, your legislators may be more than likely to seek higher office and be fifty-fifty more receptive to constituent pressure as a mode of protecting their future balloter prospects.

What Do State Legislatures Have in Common?

Even though each state legislature is unique, many of them share a few basic characteristics:

• Most legislatures are bicameral. This just means they have two chambers. (The exception to this rule is Nebraska, which only has a single legislative bedroom.) The states that are bicameral usually take a "lower" house which has more than members that represent smaller geographical areas (similar the federal Firm of Representatives) and an "upper" house which has fewer members that correspond larger geographical areas (similar the federal Senate). The "lower" business firm is ofttimes called the House or Assembly, and the "upper" firm is called the state Senate.

• Legislative sessions commencement at the offset of the year. Most legislatures commencement in January or February, simply vary in length. This is important because lawmakers apply the months preceding their legislative session to collect ideas for bills. If you have an idea for legislation that you would like introduced, you demand to striking the ground running after the election.

• Bills are supported (and often written by) outside groups who work with legislators to assist go the bill passed.

• Many bills are moving simultaneously through a given land legislature. In that location are usually hundreds or even thousands of bills introduced in a unmarried legislative session.

• Bills become through iii "readings" to pass through a sleeping room. The first reading is when a bill is kickoff introduced into the chamber. The bill is then usually assigned to policy committee(south) which will assess the bill. Later on the neb is reported out of policy committee to the floor, it undergoes the 2nd reading. which is ofttimes when amendments to the commission-reported bill are immune. The third reading is when the bill is voted on by the legislators for terminal passage.

• Bills must pass both chambers of a legislature and be signed by the Governor in social club to become police. In some states, if the Governor does not proactively veto a bill, it still becomes law without their signature.

• The committee process is extremely of import. Though committee structures vary by state, as a general principle bills must pass through specialized committees of jurisdiction before they become to the floor of a bedchamber, similar to Congress. This is often where substantive amendments are made (though amendments tin often also be made on the flooring). Each committee has a chairperson who exerts a great deal of command over what happens in the commission by deciding things like which bills go heard, which ones never become brought up, and the schedule it all happens on. Constituent involvement in the commission process through directly engagement with committee members, public testimony, or written statements tin be enormously impactful.

• The legislative leadership is normally very powerful. Similar to how Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan exert an enormous corporeality of power over what bills see the light of twenty-four hour period in Congress, the leaders of each state legislative chamber also have a groovy deal of power. They often determine committee assignments for legislators, and decide to which commission proposed beak should be assigned for consideration. They can even sometimes unilaterally hold a beak and prevent information technology from moving frontward. They also have ability over things that constituents never encounter merely that could play a role in policymaking, like individual part budgets, committee staff resources, staff salaries, and who gets which actual physical office spaces.

  That being said, leadership may be more or less powerful in a given land depending on the political factors in that state. For example, a battleground state may accept less entrenched leadership since power may oscillate back and forth between parties. Similarly, states with term limits that showroom more than turnover will place less accent on leadership than states with unlimited terms. On the other hand, a unmarried-party ruled land will likely have more entrenched leadership.

What Makes Country Legislatures Different from Each Other?

Despite the similarities named higher up, legislatures do differ in some key ways that volition affect your advocacy strategy:

• Each state legislature meets for unlike lengths of time , ranging from thirty days every other year to year-round. Believe it or not, only nine states have full-fourth dimension legislatures — California, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The residuum of the states meet part-time with some states like Montana, Nevada, Texas, N Dakota only meeting in odd-numbered years.

• The legislative process is different for each state . Bills can commonly originate in either sleeping room, and so cross over to the other house. However, in some states, bills that increase or subtract revenue must start in the lower business firm and and so motility to the upper house. Some legislatures have internal deadlines within their session for bills to pass out of committee or cross over to the 2d house. Others have no internal deadlines and the process is a gratis-for-all. Some have rules about how long bills must take to move through a process, while others don't.

• Each state has different numbers of representatives . A unmarried legislative bedroom could have as few every bit 20 members, every bit many as 400, or anywhere in betwixt.

• Each state varies in the amount of resources and staff that legislators take . Legislators in California have tons of resources and each legislator has multiple staff and aides, while legislators from New Hampshire may exist lucky to even have 1 paid staff person and may be entirely staffed by volunteers. Similarly, legislators in some states may have offices in their home districts as well as at the land capital, while in other states, they may just have capital letter offices.

• Your country may have other unique features. Look for other things that may make your state particularly unique. Does your state take a lame duck session? Does your country have a dominion that every beak introduced must have a hearing? Does your land take rules for bills that require appropriation of coin? How of import is the budget process in your state? Each state has its own idiosyncrasies and then learn yours.

How Tin can Yous Learn About Your Own State'south Legislature?

Y'all'll demand to learn about how your own state's legislature works and who represents you.

Who Represents Me?

1. Find your state legislators, their official websites, and their office contact info.

2. Sign up on your legislators' websites and social media platforms to receive regular updates, invites to local events, and propaganda to empathize what they're saying. Every legislator has an due east-newsletter.

3. Find out where your legislators stand up on the problems of the day in your community. Review their voting history and their biggest campaign contributors.

4. Ready a Google News Alert — for example for "Rep. Bob Smith" — to receive an email whenever your legislators are in the news.

5. Research on Google News what local reporters have written nigh your legislators. Discover and follow those reporters on Twitter, and build relationships. Before you lot nourish or programme an event, reach out and explain why your group is protesting, and provide them with background materials and a quote. Journalists on deadline — even those who might not agree with y'all — appreciate when you provide piece of cake material for a story.

How Does My Legislature Work?

Here are some basic questions to inquire yourself when learning about your land's legislative procedure.

• What dates is my state legislature in session?

• Does my state legislature accept specific deadlines to meet as legislation moves through the process?

• How many members are in each bedroom of my legislature and what is the party limerick of those chambers?

• Who is my Governor?

• Who is part of the land legislative leadership?

Country Legislative Session Dates

State	Start Date	End Date
Alabama	03/25/2019	05/23/2019
Alaska	01/xv/2019	05/sixteen/2020
Arizona	01/14/2019	05/11/2019
Arkansas	01/14/2019	05/02/2019
California	12/03/2018	09/13/2019
Colorado	01/09/2019	05/eleven/2019
Connecticut	01/09/2019	06/08/2019
Delaware	01/08/2019	06/30/2020
Florida	03/05/2019	05/03/2019
Georgia	01/xiv/2019	03/20/2020
Hawaii	01/16/2019	05/03/2020
Idaho	01/07/2019	03/thirty/2019
Illinois	01/09/2019	01/06/2021
Indiana	01/14/2019	04/21/2019
Iowa	01/14/2019	04/21/2020
Kansas	01/14/2019	06/26/2019
Kentucky	01/08/2019	03/30/2019
Louisiana	04/14/2019	06/06/2019
Maine	12/05/2018	04/15/2020
Maryland	01/09/2019	04/ten/2019
Massachusetts	01/02/2019	01/07/2021
Michigan	01/09/2019	12/31/2020
Minnesota	01/08/2019	05/21/2020
Mississippi	01/08/2019	03/thirty/2019
Missouri	01/09/2019	05/31/2019
Montana	01/07/2019	04/20/2019
Nebraska	01/09/2019	04/15/2020
Nevada	02/04/2019	06/04/2019
New Hampshire	01/02/2019	06/30/2019
New Bailiwick of jersey	01/09/2018	01/07/2020
New Mexico	01/15/2019	03/16/2019
New York	01/09/2019	01/06/2021
N Carolina	01/16/2019	06/xxx/2020
North Dakota	01/03/2019	04/26/2019
Ohio	01/07/2019	12/31/2020
Oklahoma	02/05/2019	05/25/2020
Oregon	02/05/2019	06/01/2019
Pennsylvania	01/01/2019	xi/30/2020
Rhode Island	01/01/2019	06/30/2019
South Carolina	01/08/2019	06/08/2020
South Dakota	01/08/2019	03/29/2019
Tennessee	01/08/2019	05/08/2020
Texas	01/08/2019	05/27/2019
Utah	01/28/2019	03/fourteen/2019
Vermont	01/09/2019	05/12/2020
Virginia	01/09/2019	03/09/2019
Washington	01/14/2019	04/22/2020
West Virginia	01/09/2019	03/09/2019
Wisconsin	01/07/2019	01/04/2021
Wyoming	01/08/2019	03/09/2019

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To learn more about the ins and outs of your particular land, it can exist helpful to connect with experts (partners, legislators, legislative staff) and pick their brains to learn what goes on behind the scenes of the legislative process.

Indivisible States: Empowering States to Resist the Trump Agenda

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Source: https://indivisible.org/resource/indivisible-states-how-state-legislatures-work

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