1-1  By:  Rosson                                           S.B. No. 1453
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed March 13, 1995; March 20, 1995, read
    1-3  first time and referred to Committee on Administration;
    1-4  May 2, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6,
    1-5  Nays 0; May 2, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to the electronic availability of legislative information
    1-9  through the Internet.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Chapter 323, Government Code, is amended by
   1-12  adding Section 323.0145 to read as follows:
   1-13        Sec. 323.0145.  ELECTRONIC AVAILABILITY OF LEGISLATIVE
   1-14  INFORMATION THROUGH THE INTERNET.  (a)  In this section:
   1-15              (1)  "Internet" means the largest nonproprietary
   1-16  nonprofit cooperative public computer network, popularly known as
   1-17  the Internet.
   1-18              (2)  "Legislative information" means:
   1-19                    (A)  a list of all the members of each house of
   1-20  the legislature;
   1-21                    (B)  a list of the committees of the legislature
   1-22  and their members;
   1-23                    (C)  the full text of each bill as filed and as
   1-24  subsequently amended, substituted, engrossed, or enrolled in either
   1-25  house of the legislature;
   1-26                    (D)  the full text of each amendment or
   1-27  substitute adopted by a legislative committee for each bill filed
   1-28  in either house of the legislature;
   1-29                    (E)  the calendar of each house of the
   1-30  legislature, the schedule of legislative committee hearings, and a
   1-31  list of the matters pending on the floor of each house of the
   1-32  legislature;
   1-33                    (F)  detailed procedural information about how a
   1-34  bill filed in either house of the legislature becomes law,
   1-35  including detailed timetable information concerning the times under
   1-36  the constitution or the rules of either house when the legislature
   1-37  may take certain actions on a bill;
   1-38                    (G)  the district boundaries or other identifying
   1-39  information for the following districts in Texas:
   1-40                          (i)  house of representatives;
   1-41                          (ii)  senate;
   1-42                          (iii)  State Board of Education; and
   1-43                          (iv)  United States Congress; and
   1-44                    (H)  other information related to the legislative
   1-45  process that in the council's opinion should be made available
   1-46  through the Internet.
   1-47        (b)  The council, to the extent it considers it to be
   1-48  feasible and appropriate, may make legislative information
   1-49  available to the public through the Internet.
   1-50        (c)  The council may make available to the public through the
   1-51  Internet any documentation that describes the electronic digital
   1-52  formats of legislative information.
   1-53        (d)  The access to legislative information allowed by this
   1-54  section:
   1-55              (1)  is in addition to the public's access to the
   1-56  information through other electronic or print distribution of the
   1-57  information;
   1-58              (2)  does not alter, diminish, or relinquish any
   1-59  copyright or other proprietary interest or entitlement of the State
   1-60  of Texas or a private entity under contract with the state; and
   1-61              (3)  does not affect Section 323.014.
   1-62        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-63        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-64  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-65  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-66  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-67  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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