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Texas Senate 2/3 Rule Replaced with 3/5 Rule

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This week the Texas Senate voted to replace its traditional 2/3 Rule with a 3/5 Rule.  The names of these rules both reflect the numbers of senators needed to overcome the Senate’s traditional blocker bill to consider new legislation; this parliamentary maneuver is intended to promote compromise by requiring more than a 50% plus one majority to enact legislation.  Given that the Texas Senate consists of 31 members, this change reduces the number of senators necessary to support a bill from 21 to 19.
The Texas Senate rules are published online, and should soon be updated to reflect this week’s changes. 

Another excellent source of Texas legislative materials is the Legislative Reference Library of Texas; its discussion of the Texas 2/3 Rule may be found here, and its collection of other resources on legislative parliamentary procedure may be found here.
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