By Pitts, Romo                                         H.B. No. 995
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 995:
          By Zbranek                                         C.S.H.B. No. 995
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to digitized optical imaging of business records.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 35, Business & Commerce
    1-5  Code, Section 35.48 is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 35.48.  Retention of Business Records.  (a)  In this
    1-7  section:
    1-8              (1)  "Business record" means letters, words, sounds, or
    1-9  numbers, or the equivalent of letters, words, sounds, or numbers,
   1-10  recorded in the operation of a business by:
   1-11                    (A)  handwriting;
   1-12                    (B)  typewriting;
   1-13                    (C)  printing;
   1-14                    (D)  photostat;
   1-15                    (E)  photograph;
   1-16                    (F)  magnetic impulse;
   1-17                    (G)  mechanical or electronic recording; <or>
   1-18                    (H)  digitized optical image; or
   1-19                    (I)  another form of data compilation.
   1-20              (2)  "Reproduction" means a counterpart of an original
   1-21  business record produced by:
   1-22                    (A)  production from the same impression or the
   1-23  same matrix as the original;
   1-24                    (B)  photograph, including an enlargement or
    2-1  miniature;
    2-2                    (C)  mechanical or electronic rerecording;
    2-3                    (D)  chemical reproduction; <or>
    2-4                    (E)  digitized optical image; or
    2-5                    (F)  another technique that accurately reproduces
    2-6  the original.
    2-7        (b)  A business record required to be kept by state law may
    2-8  be destroyed at any time after the third anniversary of the date
    2-9  the record was created unless a law or regulation applicable to the
   2-10  business record prescribes a different retention period or
   2-11  procedure for disposal.
   2-12        (c)  A state law requiring retention of a business record is
   2-13  satisfied by retention of a reproduction of the business record.
   2-14        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-15  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-16  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-17  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-18  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-19  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-20  passage, and it is so enacted.