BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	H.B. 2626
88R23426 MPF-F	By: Tepper; Leach (Perry)
	State Affairs
	5/17/2023
	Engrossed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

Constituents have expressed concerns regarding the difficulty of obtaining campaign finance reports for candidates who file with entities other than the Texas Ethics Commission. Current election law only requires certain counties, cities, and school districts to make campaign finance reports publicly accessible on a website, exempting less populous political subdivisions from the accessibility requirement. In order to increase transparency, all political subdivisions that accept campaign finance reports from candidates should be required to make such reports publicly accessible online. H.B. 2626 seeks to address this issue by requiring any political subdivision that receives campaign finance reports to make the reports publicly available on a website and maintain the report online for at least five years.

H.B. 2626 amends current law relating to the availability on the Internet of certain reports of political contributions and expenditures.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Section 254.0401, Election Code, by adding Subsections (b), (e-1), and (h), as follows:

(b) Requires the clerk or secretary of a political subdivision's governing body or, if the governing body does not have a clerk or secretary, the governing body's presiding officer to make a report filed with the political subdivision by a candidate, officeholder, or specific-purpose committee under Subchapter B (Political Reporting Generally) available to the public on the political subdivision's Internet website not later than the 10th business day after the date the report is received.

(e-1) Authorizes the authority with whom the report is filed, before making the report available on the Internet as required by Subsection (b), to remove each portion, other than city, state, and zip code, of the address of a person listed as having made a political contribution to the person filing the report. Requires that the address information removed remain available on the report maintained in the authority's office.

(h) Requires that a report made available on an Internet website under Section 254.0401 (Availability of Reports on Internet) be accessible on that website until the fifth anniversary of the date the report is first made available.

SECTION 2. Repealers: Sections 254.0401(a-1) (relating to requiring a county clerk of a county with a population of 800,000 or more to make a certain report available to the public) and (c) (relating to requiring the clerk of a municipality with a population of 500,000 or more to make a certain report available to the public), Election Code.

Repealer: Section 254.04011 (Availability of Reports of School Trustees on Internet), Election Code.

SECTION 3. Makes application of this Act prospective.

SECTION 4. Effective date: September 1, 2023.