By King of Uvalde                                      H.B. No. 836
         76R4039 JD-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 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 birth
 1-8     or death record maintained by the bureau of vital statistics of the
 1-9     Texas Department of Health or a local registration official is
1-10     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 on
1-13     which the record is filed with the bureau of vital statistics or
1-14     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 on
1-17     which the record is filed with the bureau of vital statistics or
1-18     local registration official; and
1-19                 (3)  a birth index or a death index established or
1-20     maintained by the bureau of vital statistics or a local
1-21     registration official is public information and available to the
1-22     public.
1-23           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-4     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-5     passage, and it is so enacted.