The 70th Texas Legislature met from January 13, 1987 to June 1, 1987. All members present during this session were elected in the 1986 general elections.

Sessions

Regular Session: January 13, 1987 - June 1, 1987

1st Called Session: June 2, 1987 - June 3, 1987

2nd Called Session: June 22, 1987 - July 21, 1987

Senate

Affiliation		Members	Note
	Democratic Party Democratic Party (United States) The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...	25
	Republican Party Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...	6
Total		31

House of Representatives

Affiliation		Members	Note
	Democratic Party Democratic Party (United States) The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...	90
	Republican Party Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...	60
Total		150

Senate

• Lieutenant Governor
  Lieutenant Governor of Texas
  The Lieutenant Governor of Texas is the second-highest executive office in the government of Texas, a state in the U.S. It is the second most powerful post in Texas government because its occupant controls the work of the Texas Senate and controls the budgeting process as a leader of the...
  
  : William P. Hobby, Jr.
  William P. Hobby, Jr.
  William Pettus “Bill” Hobby, Jr., is a Texas Democratic politician who served a record eighteen years as the 37th Lieutenant Governor...
  
   (D)
• President Pro Tempore (regular session): Carl A. Parker (D)
• President Pro Tempore (called sessions): Roy M. Blake (D)

House

• Speaker of the House
  Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives
  The Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the Texas House of Representatives. The Speaker's main duties are to conduct meetings of the House, appoint committees, and enforce the Rules of the House...
  
  : Gibson D. "Gib" Lewis (D)

Senate

Dist. 1

• Richard M. Anderson (D), Marshall

Dist. 2

• Ted Lyon (D), Mesquite

Dist. 3

• Roy Blake, Sr. (D), Nacogdoches

Dist. 4

• Carl A. Parker (D), Port Arthur

Dist. 5

• Kent A. Caperton
  Kent Caperton
  Kent Allen Caperton is an attorney and political consultant in Austin, Texas, who served from 1981 to 1991 as a Democratic member of the Texas State Senate from District 5, encompassing twenty-one counties from The Woodlands, to Crockett, and Caperton's then city of residence, Bryan, Texas.-Early...
  
   (D), Bryan

Dist. 6

• Gene Green
  Gene Green
  Raymond Eugene "Gene" Green is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party...
  
   (D), Houston

Dist. 7

• Don Henderson (R), Houston

Dist. 8

• O.H. "Ike" Harris
  O.H. "Ike" Harris
  O. H. "Ike" Harris is an attorney and lobbyist in Austin, Texas, who served from 1963 to 1965 and 1967 to 1995 as a Republican member from Dallas County in both houses of the Texas State Legislature. He was elected to his single term as a state representative in 1962. His Senate tenure in District...
  
   (R), Dallas

Dist. 9

• Chet Edwards
  Chet Edwards
  Thomas Chester "Chet" Edwards is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas. He represented a district based in Waco, Texas from 1991 to 2011, and served in the Texas Senate from 1983 until 1990. He is a member of the Democratic Party...
  
   (D), Duncanville

Dist. 10

• Bob McFarland
  Bob McFarland
  Millard Robert "Bob" McFarland , is an attorney and lobbyist in Arlington and Austin, Texas, who served from 1983 to 1991 as a Republican member of the Texas State Senate from District 10, then parts of Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant counties...
  
   (R), Arlington

Dist. 11

• Chet Brooks
  Chet Brooks
  Chet Brooks is a former safety who played 3 seasons for the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League. He started in Super Bowl XXIV. During his college years, he coined the name "Wrecking Crew" for the Texas A&M University football team defense.-References:...
  
   (D), Houston

Dist. 12

• Hugh Q. Parmer
  Hugh Parmer
  Hugh Q. Parmer is an attorney and Democratic politician in Fort Worth, Texas. He served in both houses of the Texas State Legislature, on the Fort Worth City Council, and as mayor of Fort Worth. In 1990, he was his party's unsuccessful nominee for the U.S...
  
   (D), Fort Worth

Dist. 13

• Craig Anthony Washington
  Craig Anthony Washington
  Craig Anthony Washington is a former American congressman representing Texas as a Democrat in the United States House of Representatives....
  
   (D), Houston

Dist. 14

• Gonzalo Barrientos
  Gonzalo Barrientos
  Gonzalo Barrientos, Jr. is a former Democratic member of the Texas Senate representing the 14th District from 1985 to 2007. He was also a member of the Texas House of Representatives from Austin from 1975 to 1985.-2002:-2000:...
  
   (D), Austin

Dist. 15

• John Whitmire
  John Whitmire
  John Harris Whitmire is the longest-serving of current members of the Texas State Senate representing District 15, which includes much of northern Houston, since 1983. Previously he was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1973 through 1982...
  
   (D), Houston

Dist. 16

• John N. Leedom
  John N. Leedom
  John N. Leedom, Sr. , is an engineer and lobbyist from Dallas, Texas, who served from 1981 to 1996 as a Republican member of the Texas State Senate from District 16...
  
   (R), Dallas

Dist. 17

• J. E. "Buster" Brown
  J. E. "Buster" Brown
  James Edward Brown, known as J. E. "Buster" Brown , is an attorney and lobbyist in Austin, Texas, who served from 1981 to 2002 as a Republican member of the Texas State Senate from District 17, based in Brazoria, Fort Bend, and part of Harris counties, south and west of Houston...
  
   (R), Lake Jackson

Dist. 18

• Ken Armbrister
  Ken Armbrister
  Kenneth L. Armbrister was a Democratic member of the Texas Senate representing the 18th District from 1987 to 2007.Armbrister was a Victoria, Texas police captain, and the vice president of the Victoria School Board when first elected as a Democrat to the Texas House of Representatives in 1983...
  
   (D), Victoria

Dist. 19

• Frank Tejeda
  Frank Tejeda
  Frank Mariano Tejeda was a decorated United States Marine and an American Democratic politician from Texas. He served in the Texas House of Representatives , the Texas Senate , and in the United States House of Representatives .-Biography:Frank M. Tejeda was born in San Antonio, Texas. He attended...
  
   (D), San Antonio

Dist. 20

• Carlos F. Truan (D), Corpus Christi

Dist. 21

• Judith Zaffirini
  Judith Zaffirini
  Judith Zaffirini is a Democratic member of the Texas State Senate representing the 21st District, which includes her home city of Laredo. On January 9, 2007, Zaffirini became the second in seniority in the 31-member Texas Senate, where she has served since 1987...
  
   (D), Laredo

Dist. 22

• Bob Glasgow (D), Stephenville

Dist. 23

• Eddie Bernice Johnson
  Eddie Bernice Johnson
  Eddie Bernice Johnson is a politician from the state of Texas, currently representing the state's in the United States House of Representatives. She is the first registered nurse elected to the US Congress....
  
   (D), Dallas

Dist. 24

• Grant Jones (D), Abilene

Dist. 25

• Bill Sims (D), San Angelo

Dist. 26

• Cyndi Taylor Krier
  Cyndi Taylor Krier
  Cynthia Taylor Krier, known as Cyndi Taylor Krier , is an attorney, lobbyist, and former Republican politician in San Antonio, Texas. She served in the Texas State Senate from District 26 from 1985 to 1993 and as the administrative judge of Bexar County from 1993 to 2001...
  
   (R), San Antonio

Dist. 27

• Hector Uribe
  Hector Uribe
  Hector Uribe is a former Democratic member of the Texas Senate, District 27 and a past candidate for Texas Land Commissioner....
  
   (D), Brownsville

Dist. 28

• John T. Montford (D), Lubbock

Dist. 29

• Tati Santiesteban (D), El Paso

Dist. 30

• Ray Farabee
  Ray Farabee
  Kenneth Ray Farabee, known as Ray Farabee , is a retired attorney in Austin, Texas, who served as a Democratic member of the Texas State Senate from Wichita Falls from 1975 to 1988. He is credited with the authorship of 245 Senate bills that became law during his 13-year tenure. In 1985, he was the...
  
   (D), Wichita Falls

Dist. 31

• Bill Sarpalius
  Bill Sarpalius
  William "Bill" Sarpalius is a former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, having represented from 1989 to 1995 District 13, which covers the Texas Panhandle eastward to Wichita Falls, Texas....
  
   (D), Amarillo

Key legislation

This session was, to date, the most prolific in history; exceeding previous records set in 1983 and 1985. The legislature filed 4,179 bills of which 1,185 were passed by the governor.

Senate bills responding to news-making events on various state university campuses were passed. These included a bill in response to a fraternity hazing death at the University of Texas and various bills directly addressing booster involvement in campus athletics. The latter bills were implemented to prevent events that had resulted in the so-called "death penalty" being assessed against Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...

 by the NCAA. This issue was a particularly sore spot for governor Bill Clements

Bill Clements

William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr. was the 42nd and 44th Governor of Texas, serving from 1979 to 1983 and 1987 to 1991. Clements was the first Republican to have served as governor of the U.S. state of Texas since Reconstruction...

 since he had been the head of the university's board of trustees during the scandal and had purportedly authorized payments to student athletes in direct violation of NCAA policy.

Key legislation regarding the sale of alcoholic beverages was passed in this session. These included regulating the sale of alcohol and passage of an open container bill to prevent drinking of alcoholic beverages while driving an automobile. Other legislations related to intoxicants address "designer drugs" and placed legal liabilities on those establishments serving alcoholic beverages.

The Senate approved observing the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Senate Bill 485, 70th Legislature Regular Session. Chapter 159. Approved May 25, 1987 and Effective August 31, 1987 as an optional holiday.

Two special sessions were held. The first, called by Clements, commenced June 2, 1987 and ended the following day. It was specifically designed to address issue related to insurance and civil liability, otherwise known as tort reform

Tort reform

Tort reform refers to proposed changes in common law civil justice systems that would reduce tort litigation or damages. Tort actions are civil common law claims first created in the English commonwealth system as a non-legislative means for compensating wrongs and harm done by one party to...

. The second special session addressed 72 various topics from passing the state budget to wastewater treatment, between June 22 and July 21, 1987.

Sources

• Texas holidays
• http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/scanned/sessionOverviews/summary/soe70.pdf
• "Senior Trustees Quit as S.M.U. Revamps Board" by Peter Applebome, New York Times May 9, 1987 (Accessed March 1, 2008).