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The governor's power to set the agenda in special sessions
can concentrate legislative attention on large social problems. In
November 1992, for example, Governor Ann Richards convened the fourth
called session of the 72nd legislature (1991) to consider only the topic
of public school reform. But the agenda setting power can also be used
to serve narrow interests as when Governor Miriam "Ma" Ferguson in
September 1933 convened the first special session of the 43rd
legislature (1933). Over thirty days it considered a list of 153
topics, everything from money for refrigeration at the Governor's
Mansion to issuance of $20 million in bonds to raise relief funds.
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