1-1           By:  Zaffirini                                   S.B. No. 444

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 5, 1997; February 10, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Health and Human

 1-4     Services; February 19, 1997, reported favorably by the following

 1-5     vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0; February 19, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to administration of vital statistics records.

 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-10           SECTION 1.  Subsection (d), Section 191.025, Health and

1-11     Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:

1-12           (d)  Information required on a certificate must be written

1-13     legibly in durable blue or black ink or may be filed and registered

1-14     by photographic, electronic, or other means as prescribed by the

1-15     state registrar.

1-16           SECTION 2.  Section 191.026, Health and Safety Code, is

1-17     amended by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (e) to

1-18     read as follows:

1-19           (c)  The local registrar shall copy in the record book

1-20     required under Section 191.025 each certificate that the local

1-21     registrar registers, unless the local registrar keeps duplicates

1-22     under Subsection (d) or makes photographic duplications as

1-23     authorized by Chapter 181 or 201, Local Government Code.  Except as

1-24     provided by Subsection (e), the [The] copies shall be permanently

1-25     preserved in the local registrar's office as the local record, in

1-26     the manner directed by the state registrar.

1-27           (e)  The local registrar may, after the first anniversary of

1-28     the date of registration of a birth, death, or fetal death, destroy

1-29     the permanent record of the birth, death, or fetal death maintained

1-30     by the local registrar if:

1-31                 (1)  the local registrar has access to electronic

1-32     records of births, deaths, and fetal deaths maintained by the

1-33     bureau of vital statistics; and

1-34                 (2)  before destroying the records, the local registrar

1-35     certifies to the state registrar that each record maintained by the

1-36     local office that is to be destroyed has been verified against the

1-37     records contained in the bureau's database and that each record is

1-38     included in the database or otherwise accounted for.

1-39           SECTION 3.  Section 191.035, Health and Safety Code, is

1-40     repealed.

1-41           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-42     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-43     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-44     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-45     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-46     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-47     passage, and it is so enacted.

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