State legislature (United States)

This includes determining types of cases that can be heard, setting court fees, and regulating attorney conduct.

Sometimes what the legislature wishes to accomplish cannot be done simply by the passage of a bill, but rather requires amending the state constitution.

Each state has specified steps intended to make it difficult to alter the constitution without the sufficient support of either the legislature, or the people, or both.

(In a few states, a separate executive council, composed of members elected from large districts, performs the confirmation function.)

Nebraska originally had a bicameral legislature like the other states, but the lower house was abolished following a referendum, effective with the 1936 elections.

The larger chamber customarily has the exclusive power to initiate taxing legislation and articles of impeachment.

In Reynolds v. Sims the Supreme Court decided upon the one man, one vote standard for state legislatures and invalidated representation based on geographical units regardless of population.

A legislature also approves the state's operating and capital budgets, which may begin as a legislative proposal or a submission by the governor.

Some states have varying lengths for odd-numbered and even-numbered years, or allow for a fixed number of either legislative or calendar days.

[4] Four state legislatures – Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and Texas – meet only biennially.

[5] The latest legislature to switch to annual sessions was Oregon in 2011, following a voter-approved ballot measure.

[8] During official meetings, a professional parliamentarian is available to ensure that legislation and accompanying discussion proceed as orderly as possible without bias.

Standing committees are charged with the important responsibility of examining bills and recommending action to the Senate or House.

Bills reported favorably by a committee may be placed on a regular calendar (the agenda of the deliberative body).

The legislature as a whole relies on its committees to report out only those bills deserving the consideration of the entire house.

[citation needed] Pocket veto and discharge petitions Pocket veto powers are common, which allows a committee to "kill" a bill, sometimes without even a public vote; in Colorado, the power was notably repealed in a citizen initiative constitutional amendment in 1988 driven by various reform groups.

The regular calendar is a list of bills that have been favorably reported from committee and are ready for consideration by the membership of the entire house.

At this time, the bill may be studied in detail, debated, amended, and read at length before final passage.

It may concur in the amendment by the adoption of a motion to that effect; then the bill, having been passed by both houses in identical form, is ready for enrollment.

Another possibility is that the house of origin may adopt a motion to non-concur in the amendment, at which point the bill dies.

Finally, the house of origin may refuse to accept the amendment but request that a conference committee be appointed.

From this point, the bill becomes an act, and remains the law of the state unless repealed by legislative action or overturned by a court decision.

The bill is then reconsidered, and if a simple majority of the members of both houses agrees to the proposed executive amendments, it is returned to the governor for signature.

If the governor fails to return a bill to the legislative house in which it originated within a specified number of days after it was presented, it becomes a law without their signature.