The governor of Texas isconsidered relatively weak by national standards. Texas has a pluralexecutive, meaning voters elect a lot of the executive branch officials(comptroller, agriculture commissioner, land commissioner, lieutenant governor,attorney general, etc.) independently. The governor, therefore, has littlecontrol over the executive branch of state government, since the guys who runit mostly don’t report to him – they answer only to the voters.

One area where thegovernor holds real power, though, is in the legislative process. The TexasConstitution allows the governor to call the state legislature into special sessionand gives him the sole power to set the session’s agenda. Bills on subjects notincluded in the governor’s “call” cannot be considered. TheConstitution also allows the governor the power to veto bills passed by the legislature. While thelegislature technically has the power to override his veto with a 2/3 vote, hegenerally vetoes bills after the legislature has adjourned – making the threatof an override meaningless.

The Constitutionaldeadline for Governor GregAbbott to veto bills passed by the last regular session of the TexasLegislature was Sunday, June 21, 2015. He vetoed a total of 42 bills.

Your assignment:

Take a look at the billsvetoed by Governor Abbott this year:

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/Reports/Report.aspx?LegSess=84R&ID=vetoedbygov

Pick three and write a 3-5 pages essay explaining;

• What each bill did

• Why Governor Abbott vetoedit

• And whether or not youagree with the governor’s decision

Submit this assignmentin Microsoft Word. Cite your sources.

Additional Resources

Governor Abbott’sofficial veto proclamations can be found on his website: http://gov.texas.gov/news/bills

The Texas Tribune is always a good source of information: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/20/abbot-wields-veto-pen-final-days-decision-period/

Texas’ LegislativeReference Library has a website that lets you look at governors’ vetoes all theway back to 1846: http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legis/vetoes/

Governing Magazine alsohas a good article on Governor Abbott’s vetoes: http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/tt-greg-abbott-vetoes.html