The Texas Constitution directs each chamber to keep a journal of its own proceedings, and daily journals are published for every legislative day in a session. Rather than providing a verbatim record of debate, these journals outline the proceedings and track motions and other legislative actions. The following information is included:

• number, author, and caption of each bill and resolution introduced and the committee to which it is referred
• complete text of committee and floor amendments
• results of each vote taken
• a record of how each member voted, if a record vote has been taken
• a list of bills sent to the governor
• the governor’s veto messages
• standing and special committee appointments
• conference committee appointments
• a list of members present
• senate confirmation actions on the governor’s appointments (senate journal only)

Journals are published in two forms: daily journals that are prepared and distributed on the day following each meeting and permanent (bound) journals that are compiled and indexed during the interim following a session. Appendixes to the permanent journals of each chamber contain a list of bills and resolutions introduced by each member and a bill history of all major actions taken on legislation in the chamber. The subject index categorizes all measures considered and acted on by the legislature.

TLIS on the legislative intranet and TLO on the Internet display dates and daily journal page numbers for actions taken on each legislative measure.

The daily house journals are available online beginning with the 74th Legislature (1995) through the house of representatives’ website; the daily senate journals are available online beginning with the 76th Legislature (1999) through the senate’s website. House daily journals are available from House Document Distribution, and senate daily journals are available from the senate journal clerk. Scanned versions of journals from the 1st Legislature (1846) through the 26th Legislature (1899) are available on the Legislative Reference Library's website. Permanent journals are available for use in the Legislative Reference Library and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.