LSL S.B. 444 75(R) BILL ANALYSIS PUBLIC HEALTH S.B. 444 By: Zaffirini (Berlanga) 3-12-97 Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND Currently, copies of vital statistics are permanently preserved in local registrar offices as local records. The requirement to keep hard copy files is very costly, inefficient, and cumbersome for the 600 local registrars and 254 county clerks across the state. The electronic reporting of births presently saves the Texas Department of Health more than $100,000 per year in data entry costs alone. PURPOSE SB 444 would allow for the destruction of permanent local records by the local registrar after a certain period, provided that the registrar has access to electronic records maintained by the Bureau of Vital Statistics. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Subsection (d), Section 191.025, Health and Safety Code, is amended to add that information required on a certificate must be written in blue or black ink or may be filed and registered by photographic, electronic, or other means as prescribed by the state registrar. SECTION 2. Subsection (c), Section 191.026, Health and Safety Code, is amended to conform to Subsection (e). Subsection (e) is added to allow the local registrar, after the first anniversary of the date of registration of a birth, death, or fetal death, to destroy these permanent vital statistics records maintained by the local registrar if: (1) the local registrar has access to electronic vital statistics records maintained by the bureau of vital statistics; and (2) before destroying the records, the local registrar certifies to the state registrar that each record maintained by the local office that is to be destroyed has been verified against the records in the bureau's database, and that each record is included in the database or otherwise accounted for. SECTION 3. Repeals Section 191.035, Health and Safety Code, regarding compensation of the local registrar and county clerk. SECTION 4. Emergency clause. Effective immediately upon passage.