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Reference · Legislation

Texas Senate Resolution 520 (89th Legislature)

Senate Resolution 520 of the 89th Texas Legislature is a simple resolution of the Texas Senate, filed by Senator Hall during the regular session of 2025 and adopted without objection on May 14, 2025.12 Its caption describes it as recognizing Rosser Newton for his biography of Richard Coke, the fifteenth governor of Texas, and the Legislature’s subject index files it under congratulatory and honorary resolutions.1 By unanimous consent the names of the Lieutenant Governor and the senators were added to it as signers, so that the whole chamber joined its author.2

Legislative history

Texas Legislature Online records four actions on the measure, all in the Senate. It was received by the Secretary of the Senate on May 12, 2025. On May 14 it was read and adopted, an action entered at page 2086 of the Senate Journal, and on the same day it was reported enrolled, entered at page 2139.1 The history page lists Senator Hall as the sole author and gives its council document number as 89R 27898.1 No committee referral appears in the record.1

The Senate Journal for the thirty ninth day of the regular session, Wednesday, May 14, 2025, prints the resolution in full at the point where it was taken up. The entry follows a fixed sequence: Senator Hall offered the resolution; the text was read; on motion of Senator Kolkhorst and by unanimous consent the names of the Lieutenant Governor and the senators were added as signers; and on motion of Senator Hall the resolution was adopted without objection.2 The journal’s list of bills and resolutions enrolled that day includes SR 520 among a run of Senate resolutions numbered from 515 to 521.2

Procedure for resolutions of this kind

Rulings collected with the Senate Rules hold that an appropriation cannot be made by resolution and that a resolution attempting to amend a general law is out of order.3 Under Rule 8.03 of the Senate Rules adopted for the 89th Legislature, congratulatory and memorial resolutions are considered immediately and without debate after a brief explanation by the author, unless a majority of the members present orders otherwise.3 The same rule allows the presiding officer to recognize a member’s guests in the gallery and limits the number of times a member may be recognized for such a resolution to ten in a session.3 A note of ruling attached to the rule records that a congratulatory resolution, being undebatable, may be considered at once or referred to a committee by the presiding officer.3

The journal for May 14 shows the same pattern applied to other measures that day. Senate Resolution 518, recognizing a statewide awareness day, and Senate Resolution 395, recognizing a class of scholars, were each read, given the signatures of the Lieutenant Governor and senators by unanimous consent on another member’s motion, and adopted without objection on the author’s motion.2

Text

The enrolled version consists of five preamble clauses, each opening with the word whereas, followed by two resolving clauses.4 The preamble identifies the biography, Richard Coke: Texan, and its author, an indirect descendant of Governor Coke; notes that the book appeared in November 2024 from Stoney Creek Publishing Group, part of the Texas Book Consortium affiliated with Texas A&M University Press; and summarizes Coke’s career as governor and as a United States senator.4 A further clause refers to the author’s service as a trustee of the Dallas Historical Society and as co chair of the Alamo Letter Society, an organization that installs bronze copies of William B. Travis’s Victory or Death letter in courthouses of Texas counties.4

The first resolving clause honors him “for his biography of former Texas governor Richard Coke.”4 The second directs that an official copy of the resolution be prepared for him as an expression of the Senate’s regard.4 The enrolled text closes with the printed names of the senators and of the Lieutenant Governor as President of the Senate, followed by a certificate for the Secretary of the Senate attesting that the resolution was adopted on May 14, 2025.4

The governor at the center of the honored book is treated in this site’s entry on Richard Coke, and the house that issued the biography is described under Stoney Creek Publishing Group. Coke’s career is also the subject of an article in the Handbook of Texas, the reference work published by the Texas State Historical Association.5 Recognition of the book outside the Legislature is collected on the press page.

The photograph above shows the Senate chamber of the Texas Capitol in Austin as documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey.6

References

  1. Texas Legislature Online, History, 89(R) SR 520 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Texas Senate, Senate Journal, 89th Legislature, Regular Session, thirty ninth day, May 14, 2025 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Texas Senate, Senate Rules adopted by the 89th Legislature ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Texas Legislature Online, 89(R) SR 520, enrolled version ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  5. Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association, Coke, Richard ↩

  6. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Texas State Capitol, Eleventh Street at Congress Avenue, Austin, Travis County, TX ↩