By:  McCall                                            H.B. No. 732
       73R3116 DWS-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to records preservation by a district clerk.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 51, Government Code, is
    1-5  amended by adding Section 51.304 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 51.304.  PRESERVATION OF RECORDS.  (a)  The district
    1-7  clerk shall provide for the use of materials to store, retrieve,
    1-8  and reproduce records and of processes relating to the use of
    1-9  microfilm or electronic records that meet the requirements of the
   1-10  Texas State Library and Archives Commission or the American
   1-11  National Standards Institute.
   1-12        (b)  The district clerk shall collect at the time of filing
   1-13  of a civil case or a pleading ancillary to a civil case a record
   1-14  preservation fee of $10.   A defendant convicted of a criminal
   1-15  offense in district court shall pay as a cost of court a record
   1-16  preservation fee of $10.  Fees collected under this subsection may
   1-17  be used only for an expenditure authorized by the commissioners
   1-18  court to provide for the storage of records and the maintenance,
   1-19  retention, security, retrieval, and reproduction of stored records.
   1-20        SECTION 2.  The law added by Section 1 of this Act replaces
   1-21  Section 51.304, Government Code, as amended by Chapter 978, Acts of
   1-22  the 71st Legislature, Regular Session, 1989, and subsequently
   1-23  repealed by Chapter 1248, Acts of the 71st Legislature, Regular
   1-24  Session, 1989.
    2-1        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    2-2        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.