1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to access under the public information law to birth and
 1-3     death indexes.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 552.115, Government Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 552.115.  EXCEPTION:  BIRTH AND DEATH RECORDS.  (a)  A
 1-8     birth or death record maintained by the bureau of vital statistics
 1-9     of the Texas Department of Health or a local registration official
1-10     is excepted from the requirements of Section 552.021, except that:
1-11                 (1)  a birth record is public information and available
1-12     to the public on and after the 50th anniversary of the date of
1-13     birth as shown on [which] the record [is] filed with the bureau of
1-14     vital statistics or local registration official; [and]
1-15                 (2)  a death record is public information and available
1-16     to the public on and after the 25th anniversary of the date of
1-17     death as shown on [which] the record [is] filed with the bureau of
1-18     vital statistics or local registration official;
1-19                 (3)  a general birth index or a general death index
1-20     established or maintained by the bureau of vital statistics or a
1-21     local registration official is public information and available to
1-22     the public to the extent the index relates to a birth record or
1-23     death record that is public information and available to the public
1-24     under Subdivision (1) or (2); and
 2-1                 (4)  a summary birth index or a summary death index
 2-2     prepared or maintained by the bureau of vital statistics or a
 2-3     local registration official is public information and available to
 2-4     the public.
 2-5           (b)  Notwithstanding Subsection (a), a general birth index or
 2-6     a summary birth index is not public information and is not
 2-7     available to the public if:
 2-8                 (1)  the fact of an adoption or paternity determination
 2-9     can be revealed by the index; or
2-10                 (2)  the index contains specific identifying
2-11     information relating to the parents of a child who is the subject
2-12     of an adoption placement.
2-13           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-18     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-19     passage, and it is so enacted.
         _______________________________     _______________________________
             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 836 was passed by the House on March
         25, 1999, by a non-record vote; and that the House concurred in
         Senate amendments to H.B. No. 836 on May 26, 1999, by a non-record
         vote.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Chief Clerk of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 836 was passed by the Senate, with
         amendments, on May 24, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 30, Nays
         0.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Secretary of the Senate
         APPROVED:  _____________________
                            Date
                    _____________________
                          Governor