By Rosson                                             S.B. No. 1453
       74R3144 JRD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the electronic availability of legislative information
    1-3  through the Internet.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 323, Government Code, is amended by
    1-6  adding Section 323.0145 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 323.0145.  ELECTRONIC AVAILABILITY OF LEGISLATIVE
    1-8  INFORMATION THROUGH THE INTERNET.  (a)  In this section:
    1-9              (1)  "Internet" means the largest nonproprietary
   1-10  nonprofit cooperative public computer network, popularly known as
   1-11  the Internet.
   1-12              (2)  "Legislative information" means:
   1-13                    (A)  a list of all the members of each house of
   1-14  the legislature;
   1-15                    (B)  a list of the committees of the legislature
   1-16  and their members;
   1-17                    (C)  the full text of each bill as filed and as
   1-18  subsequently amended, substituted, engrossed, or enrolled in either
   1-19  house of the legislature;
   1-20                    (D)  the full text of each amendment or
   1-21  substitute adopted by a legislative committee for each bill filed
   1-22  in either house of the legislature;
   1-23                    (E)  the calendar of each house of the
   1-24  legislature, the schedule of legislative committee hearings, and a
    2-1  list of the matters pending on the floor of each house of the
    2-2  legislature;
    2-3                    (F)  detailed procedural information about how a
    2-4  bill filed in either house of the legislature becomes law,
    2-5  including detailed timetable information concerning the times under
    2-6  the constitution or the rules of either house when the legislature
    2-7  may take certain actions on a bill;
    2-8                    (G)  the district boundaries or other identifying
    2-9  information for the following districts in Texas:
   2-10                          (i)  house of representatives;
   2-11                          (ii)  senate;
   2-12                          (iii)  State Board of Education; and
   2-13                          (iv)  United States Congress; and
   2-14                    (H)  other information related to the legislative
   2-15  process that in the council's opinion should be made available
   2-16  through the Internet.
   2-17        (b)  The council, to the extent it considers it to be
   2-18  feasible and appropriate, may make legislative information
   2-19  available to the public through the Internet.
   2-20        (c)  The council may make available to the public through the
   2-21  Internet any documentation that describes the electronic digital
   2-22  formats of legislative information.
   2-23        (d)  The access to legislative information allowed by this
   2-24  section:
   2-25              (1)  is in addition to the public's access to the
   2-26  information through other electronic or print distribution of the
   2-27  information;
    3-1              (2)  does not alter, diminish, or relinquish any
    3-2  copyright or other proprietary interest or entitlement of the State
    3-3  of Texas or a private entity under contract with the state; and
    3-4              (3)  does not affect Section 323.014.
    3-5        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    3-6        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.