By:  Zaffirini                                         S.B. No. 444

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to administration of vital statistics records.

 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subsection (d), Section 191.025, Health and

 1-4     Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:

 1-5           (d)  Information required on a certificate must be written

 1-6     legibly in durable blue or black ink or may be filed and registered

 1-7     by photographic, electronic, or other means as prescribed by the

 1-8     state registrar.

 1-9           SECTION 2.  Section 191.026, Health and Safety Code, is

1-10     amended by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (e) to

1-11     read as follows:

1-12           (c)  The local registrar shall copy in the record book

1-13     required under Section 191.025 each certificate that the local

1-14     registrar registers, unless the local registrar keeps duplicates

1-15     under Subsection (d) or makes photographic duplications as

1-16     authorized by Chapter 181 or 201, Local Government Code.  Except as

1-17     provided by Subsection (e), the [The] copies shall be permanently

1-18     preserved in the local registrar's office as the local record, in

1-19     the manner directed by the state registrar.

1-20           (e)  The local registrar may, after the first anniversary of

1-21     the date of registration of a birth, death, or fetal death, destroy

1-22     the permanent record of the birth, death, or fetal death maintained

1-23     by the local registrar if:

 2-1                 (1)  the local registrar has access to electronic

 2-2     records of births, deaths, and fetal deaths maintained by the

 2-3     bureau of vital statistics; and

 2-4                 (2)  before destroying the records, the local registrar

 2-5     certifies to the state registrar that each record maintained by the

 2-6     local office that is to be destroyed has been verified against the

 2-7     records contained in the bureau's database and that each record is

 2-8     included in the database or otherwise accounted for.

 2-9           SECTION 3.  Section 191.035, Health and Safety Code, is

2-10     repealed.

2-11           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-16     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-17     passage, and it is so enacted.