Short essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Short - Essay Example In the case of eligibility to get elected to the post, Texas House is far easier than US House to reach. First of all, the minimum age required to be elected to the Texas House is twenty-one years while that of the US House is twenty five years. In addition, while US House requires that a member should be a citizen of United States for the past seven years, for Texas House, it is 2 years. However, in the case of compensation, US House far outreach the Texas House. While the former gives an annual salary of $ 174, 000, the latter offers a meager amount of $ 600 per month, along with a per diem of $ 128, thus totaling to $ 17,920 per year, showing a ten times difference! In addition, other retirements heavily favor US House members In addition, the US House members enjoy a hefty pension, personal staff allowance, expense allowances, foreign travel allowance, and in addition, can make an income from outside employment that does not exceed 15% of their member pay. On the other hand, Texa ns receive a meager sum as salary. In the case of terms of service both seem similar in the fact that both are elected for two year terms and can get elected infinite number of times. However, in the case of Texas legislation, the number of regular session is 140 days to the maximum though the governor calls for special sessions which can go up to a maximum of 30 days (Texas House of Representatives). On the other hand, US House is considered full-time but sessions last six months or more, that starts in January and ends by the end of July. In total, it seems that though the US House members are in full-time job getting huge salaries and other benefits, they remain far away from their constituency, thus being unable to concentrate on the issues affecting the local people. On the other hand, though Texas house members get less salary and other benefits, they get ample opportunity to interact with the people, and thus, playing their role well. I would rather go for Texas House members hip as it gives the satisfaction of public service. 2 Both the Texas legislature and the US Congress are similar to a great extent in their structure, function, election and length of terms. However, a close look will reveal a huge difference in the pay of representatives and nature and duration of sessions. When the structure of both the legislatures is taken into consideration, one can find a lot of similarities, the first one being their bicameral nature. The US Congress is divided into two; the Senate and the House of Representatives with 100 members in the former and 435 members in the latter. Similarly, Texas legislature has a Senate with 31 members and a House of Representatives with 150 members. . One can find a lot of similarities in the nature of elections too. In both the cases, the term of each member is two years and the election to all the posts in the House of Representatives takes place every two years, in even-numbered years. However, there is difference in the elec tion of Senate members. Senate members of the Congress hold their office for six years, but one third of the seats come up for election every two years. On the other hand, the members in the Texas senate are divided into two groups and half of the seats come