80R19415 PCM-D

By: Goolsby H.R. No. 2455

R E S O L U T I O N

WHEREAS, Successfully meeting the needs of the legislature over the course of a 140-day regular session is a Herculean task willingly taken on every two years by the mere mortal staff of the Texas Legislative Council; and

WHEREAS, Each odd-numbered year, legislators travel to Central Texas from across the Lone Star State to represent their constituents at the State Capitol, yet they must stay connected with the folks back home throughout their tenure in Austin; helping them to maintain that tie are the intrepid members of the council's information systems division, whose skilled technical services crew ensures that both district and Capitol offices are equipped with the PCs, printers, and software needed to get the job done; before the session even began, these movers and shakers installed or relocated equipment in 31 district offices and moved 129 Capitol offices; the division's Computer Support Center provides training designed to serve everyone from the most experienced computer geek to those in the grips of advanced technophobia, and, to help with those little temporary setbacks that can make the difference between a bad day and a worse day in the life of a harried legislative staffer, the division's technical support staff and CSC operators truly are standing by, ready to lend their vital expertise over the phone or to dispatch the council equivalent of the knight in shining armor, the council computer consultant, to an office just in time to save the day; to date, the staff has answered more than 18,000 trouble calls and provided training to over 1,100 clients; as if that weren't enough, other brainiacs among the IS staff are constantly at work developing and supporting such custom network and web applications as LMS, CMS, MSS, and TLO to accomplish ever more amazing feats; and

WHEREAS, The hardworking attorneys, legal assistants, editors, and support staff of the legal division effectively bid their private lives a fond farewell in the November before each regular session to once again fully devote themselves to supporting the work of the legislature; relied on for the sharpness of their minds, the accuracy of their work, and the resilience of their sleep-deprived bodies, these folks are one by one helping to craft the proposed laws of the Lone Star State; to that end, legal staff members have collectively put in more than 23,000 hours of overtime this session to produce some 8,000 bills and constitutional amendments and approximately 10,500 amendments, substitutes, conference committee reports, and miscellaneous drafts, with each attorney averaging approximately 430 drafts; joining in the fun are members of the division's top-notch legal editing team, who not only work on each draft produced by the agency but also get to experience a serious case of déjà vu in the performance of their engrossing and enrolling duties for the house; in that capacity, they have engrossed more than 1,350 and enrolled close to 1,000 house bills and constitutional amendments and over 4,000 house concurrent and simple resolutions; and

WHEREAS, The research division of the TLC attracts all kinds, including policy wonks, wordsmiths, number crunchers, webmasters, mapmakers, and database specialists; during session, members of this fast-paced shop have filled their days and nights answering nearly 400 research requests from the legislature and the public while also serving up a veritable smorgasbord of legislative goodies, producing several hundred senate amendment and conference committee side-by-side analyses in the waning days of the session; some 4,700 policy, honorary, and memorial resolutions; new-member orientation and other publications and websites; statistical and demographic research and data; election and geographic databases; and maps presenting darn near any topic one's heart may desire in a compelling visual format; and

WHEREAS, Working 'round the clock and on weekends to accommodate the needs of the legislature are the unsung heroes of the agency, the TLC's valiant document production staff; these plucky performers do the painstaking work required to expertly produce approximately 22,000 legislative drafts, as well as house official printings and numerous other documents each session, through a combination of the flying fingers of the folks in data transcription, the artful work of the graphics section, the astoundingly strong attention to detail of the proofreading section, the over-15-million sheets of paper printed by the council print shop staff, and the multitasking ministration of the document production nerve center, the members of the processing group who whip council drafts into final form and deliver them in huge stacks to Capitol offices each day, as well as receive, organize, process, and deliver house official printings; also central to the mix are the paper pushers of the division's document distribution section, who distributed a whopping figure of more than 100,000 copies of bills and resolutions to the legislative community and the public; and

WHEREAS, Tying it all together is the vital staff of the administration division, whose invaluable contributions keep all systems go as the agency battens down the hatches for session; composed of the executive team and the human resources, accounting and purchasing, and staff services and facilities management personnel, the administration division seamlessly maintains the overall operations of the agency, assists in bringing on the 100 extra people needed throughout the agency each session to handle the burgeoning workload, and manages the myriad everyday tasks required to ensure its staff the little things that mean so much in their home away from home, including a smoothly functioning physical plant, well-stocked supply stores, cleaner surroundings than employees can find in their own increasingly neglected homes, and countless other amenities without which the challenges of the session would indeed be more daunting; and

WHEREAS, Council staff strive to bring to their duties accuracy, creativity, knowledge, technical expertise, a skilled command of the English language, and unparalleled dedication, and when another regular session draws to a close, TLC employees may reflect with justifiable pride on the significant role they have played once again in serving the legislature, and thereby the citizens of this state, to the very best of their abilities; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 80th Texas Legislature hereby honor the staff of the Texas Legislative Council for their indispensable efforts in behalf of the legislative branch of government and the Lone Star State; and, be it further

RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be prepared for the staff of the council as an expression of high regard by the Texas House of Representatives.