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.