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