By:  Rosson                                           S.B. No. 1453
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the electronic availability of legislative information
    1-2  through the Internet.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Chapter 323, Government Code, is amended by
    1-5  adding Section 323.0145 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 323.0145.  ELECTRONIC AVAILABILITY OF LEGISLATIVE
    1-7  INFORMATION THROUGH THE INTERNET.  (a)  In this section:
    1-8              (1)  "Internet" means the largest nonproprietary
    1-9  nonprofit cooperative public computer network, popularly known as
   1-10  the Internet.
   1-11              (2)  "Legislative information" means:
   1-12                    (A)  a list of all the members of each house of
   1-13  the legislature;
   1-14                    (B)  a list of the committees of the legislature
   1-15  and their members;
   1-16                    (C)  the full text of each bill as filed and as
   1-17  subsequently amended, substituted, engrossed, or enrolled in either
   1-18  house of the legislature;
   1-19                    (D)  the full text of each amendment or
   1-20  substitute adopted by a legislative committee for each bill filed
   1-21  in either house of the legislature;
   1-22                    (E)  the calendar of each house of the
   1-23  legislature, the schedule of legislative committee hearings, and a
   1-24  list of the matters pending on the floor of each house of the
    2-1  legislature;
    2-2                    (F)  detailed procedural information about how a
    2-3  bill filed in either house of the legislature becomes law,
    2-4  including detailed timetable information concerning the times under
    2-5  the constitution or the rules of either house when the legislature
    2-6  may take certain actions on a bill;
    2-7                    (G)  the district boundaries or other identifying
    2-8  information for the following districts in Texas:
    2-9                          (i)  house of representatives;
   2-10                          (ii)  senate;
   2-11                          (iii)  State Board of Education; and
   2-12                          (iv)  United States Congress; and
   2-13                    (H)  other information related to the legislative
   2-14  process that in the council's opinion should be made available
   2-15  through the Internet.
   2-16        (b)  The council, to the extent it considers it to be
   2-17  feasible and appropriate, may make legislative information
   2-18  available to the public through the Internet.
   2-19        (c)  The council may make available to the public through the
   2-20  Internet any documentation that describes the electronic digital
   2-21  formats of legislative information.
   2-22        (d)  The access to legislative information allowed by this
   2-23  section:
   2-24              (1)  is in addition to the public's access to the
   2-25  information through other electronic or print distribution of the
   2-26  information;
   2-27              (2)  does not alter, diminish, or relinquish any
    3-1  copyright or other proprietary interest or entitlement of the State
    3-2  of Texas or a private entity under contract with the state; and
    3-3              (3)  does not affect Section 323.014.
    3-4        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    3-5        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-6  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-7  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-8  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.