Texas Secretary of State, Statutory Documents Section:

An Inventory of Secretary of State Legislative Bills and Resolutions Filed (General and Special Laws) at the Texas State Archives, 1836-2009

Agency History

The Texas Secretary of State is a constitutional officer of the executive branch of state government, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate for a term concurrent with the governor's (a two-year term at first, a four-year term since 1974). The office was first created by the Constitution of the Republic of Texas in 1836, and has been continued by each succeeding Constitution.

The Secretary of State has an enormous number of duties and responsibilities, including the following: authenticating the publication of all laws passed by the state legislature; approving comptroller's accounts against the state prior to payment; maintaining a register of all official acts and proceedings of the governor, and all appointments to state boards and commissions; interpreting and enforcing the Texas Election Code, as the state's chief election officer; keeping the Seal of the State of Texas; and maintaining many business-related filings, including corporation and Uniform Commercial Code filings.

The office of the Secretary of State is divided into five divisions: Executive, Elections, Statutory Filings, Administrative Services, and Information Services.

The Statutory Filings Division, composed of four sections (Corporations, Statutory Documents, Texas Register, and Uniform Commercial Code Sections), assists the secretary in most of his/her duties not related to elections.

The Statutory Documents Section records the charters of home rule cities; files amendments of charters of incorporated towns and villages; appoints, reappoints, and commissions all notaries public for the state (since 1940); files bonds or copies of bonds for state officers and state employees, members of governing bodies of certain constitutionally authorized political subdivisions, and general law districts; files the constitutional statement of bribery; issues cards to all labor organizers in the state; files labor union annual reports; registers business opportunity sellers in Texas; registers health spas, athlete agents, and credit service organizations; licenses and regulates automobile clubs; files deeds of cession; etc.

An act approved December 18, 1837 (and later acts) required the Secretary of State to contract for the printing of the laws of the Republic of Texas, and to arrange for their distribution; this function may have necessitated the compilation of an official manuscript copy of the laws. At any rate, an act approved by the 1st Legislature on May 9, 1846 required the Secretary of State to attend every legislative session to receive bills which have become laws, and to bind and maintain such bills and enrolled joint resolutions in the office of the Secretary of State; and also to deliver a certified copy of these laws (with indices and marginal notes) to the public printer, and to edit and correct them after printing. Furthermore, an act of December 14, 1863 made the Secretary of State "the custodian of the records of the Senate and House of Representatives."

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Scope and Contents of the Records

Since 1837, Texas law has required the Secretary of State to contract for the printing of the laws, and to arrange for their distribution. Since 1846, Texas law has required the Secretary of State to receive bills from the Texas Legislature which have become laws, and to bind and maintain such bills and enrolled joint resolutions; and also to deliver a certified copy of these laws (with indices) to the public printer. These records are the official, final, signed copies of legislative bills and resolutions (general and special laws) passed by the Congress of the Republic of Texas and the Legislature of the State of Texas, and subsequently filed with the Texas Secretary of State. These contain the original signatures of all officials (President of the Senate, Speaker of the House, Chief Clerk of the House, Secretary of the Senate, and Texas President/Governor). They date 1836-2009. The earlier volumes (1836-1911) are handwritten fair copies, replaced by typewritten copies in 1913. Also included (as they became required by law to be created by the legislature) are fiscal notes, criminal justice policy impact statements, actuarial impact statements, and other kinds of impact statements. These impact statements are excluded from the bound volumes beginning with the 77th Legislature (2001); but they can be found in the original bill files (currently located in the Legislative Reference Library).

Included at or near the end of each session's laws and resolutions are the vetoed bills and resolutions. Vetoed bills and resolutions include the signed proclamation by the Governor explaining the veto.

As early as 1923, indexes of the bills, arranged by bill number (e.g. House Bill 1, Senate Bill 99) were inserted loosely into some volumes; by 1939 these indexes were bound into the front of each volume.

Legislative bills and resolutions filed (general and special laws) are created as the official copy of the bills and resolutions passed into law by the Congress/Legislature, and signed (or vetoed) by the Governor. They are essentially the manuscript copies of what is subsequently published (and certified by the Secretary of State) as the General and Special Laws of Texas (a.k.a. Session Laws).

Note: A researcher can find the chapter number in the published version of the laws (beginning with the 2nd Legislature in 1847), which have subject indexes. If the researcher knows the bill number but does not know the chapter, then any volume in the session (beginning in 1939) will have an index leading from the bill number to the volume, chapter, and page. In the 2007 volumes, however, this is a table of contents rather than an index, with the contents listed in chapter order rather than in bill number order.

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

Early volumes (1st Congress through the 18th Legislature) are restricted due to their physical condition, so researchers must use the microfilmed copies of those volumes.

Materials do not circulate, but may be used in the State Archives search room. Materials will be retrieved from and returned to storage areas by staff members.

Restrictions on Use

Most records created by Texas state agencies are not copyrighted and may be freely used in any way. State records also include materials received by, not created by, state agencies. Copyright remains with the creator. The researcher is responsible for complying with U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.).

Technical Requirements

Microfilm readers are available in the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building. Ask staff members for exact locations.

Permission of the Preservation Officer is required before access is granted to those original volumes that have been microfilmed.

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Related Material

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

(Identify the item), Texas Secretary of State legislative bills and resolutions filed (general and special laws). Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Accession Information

Accession numbers: 1941/004, 1954/041, 1972/144, 1979/008, 1984/001, 1985/041, 1993/010, 1994/123, 1996/062, 1998/088, 2000/161, 2002/105, 2003/171, 2007/039, 2008/130, 2009/097, 2010/131

These records were transferred to the Texas State Archives by the Secretary of State on March 4, 1942; December 10, 1954; and May 16, 1972; by the Administrative Division of the Secretary of State on September 25, 1978; and by the Statutory Documents Section of the Secretary of State on September 1, 1983; December 3, 1984; September 24, 1992; July 8, 1994; February 23, 1996; February 27, 1998; June 13, 2000; February 7, 2002; June 19, 2003; October 13, 2006; April 16, 2008; February 18, 2009; and August 19, 2010.

Processing Information

Processed by Archives staff, unknown dates

The list of these records was placed with the records of the Legislature by Archives staff, July 1983

New accessions added to Legislative finding aid (where previous accessions are listed) by Paul Beck, October 1993 and July 1994

New accessions added to Legislative finding aid by Lisa M. Hendricks, February 1996 and February 1998

New accession added, and finding aid created as Secretary of State records by Tony Black, June 2000

New accession added by Tony Black, February 2002

Finding aid encoded by Tony Black in EAD Version 1.0, March 2002

Finding aid converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by TARO using the conversion stylesheet v1to02.xsl, July 2003

New accession added by Tony Black, August 2003

New accession added, and corrections and further encoding to DACS standards by Tony Black, October 2006

New accession added by Tony Black, April 2008

New accession added by Tony Black, February 2009

New accession added by Tony Black, August 2010

Index term corrected by Tony Black, February 2011

Appraisal Information

Texas State Archives staff completed an appraisal of its archival holdings of the Texas Secretary of State's records in January 1998. (This appraisal report is available online at http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/appraisal/sosrepublic.html , with the record series review at http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/appraisal/sosrepublic.html#36 , and also in the search room of the Texas State Archives.) This series was determined to be archival.

Accruals

Additions are transferred to the Texas State Archives, usually on a biennial basis.

Other Formats for the Records

The volumes dating 1836-1884 are duplicated on microfilm, 22 reels.

The records beginning with the 78th Texas Legislature (2003) have been reproduced online in PDF format, through a partnership between the University of North Texas Libraries and the Office of the Texas Secretary of State's Statutory Documents Section. These are accessible at http://texinfo.library.unt.edu/sessionlaws/browse.htm (accessed August 2010).

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Detailed Description of the Records