1-1     By:  King of Uvalde (Senate Sponsor - Zaffirini)       H.B. No. 836
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House March 29, 1999;
 1-3     March 30, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on State
 1-4     Affairs; April 28, 1999, rereferred to Committee on Human Services;
 1-5     May 13, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-6     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 13, 1999,
 1-7     sent to printer.)
 1-8     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 836                By:  Zaffirini
 1-9                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-10                                   AN ACT
1-11     relating to access under the public information law to birth and
1-12     death indexes.
1-13           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-14           SECTION 1.  Section 552.115, Government Code, is amended to
1-15     read as follows:
1-16           Sec. 552.115.  EXCEPTION:  BIRTH AND DEATH RECORDS.  (a)  A
1-17     birth or death record maintained by the bureau of vital statistics
1-18     of the Texas Department of Health or a local registration official
1-19     is excepted from the requirements of Section 552.021, except that:
1-20                 (1)  a birth record is public information and available
1-21     to the public on and after the 50th anniversary of the date of
1-22     birth as shown on [which] the record [is] filed with the bureau of
1-23     vital statistics or local registration official; [and]
1-24                 (2)  a death record is public information and available
1-25     to the public on and after the 25th anniversary of the date of
1-26     death as shown on [which] the record [is] filed with the bureau of
1-27     vital statistics or local registration official;
1-28                 (3)  a general birth index or a general death index
1-29     established or maintained by the bureau of vital statistics or a
1-30     local registration official is public information and available to
1-31     the public to the extent the index relates to a birth record or
1-32     death record that is public information and available to the public
1-33     under Subdivision (1) or (2); and
1-34                 (4)  a summary birth index or a summary death index
1-35     prepared or maintained by the bureau of vital statistics or a
1-36     local registration official is public information and available to
1-37     the public.
1-38           (b)  Notwithstanding Subsection (a), a general birth index or
1-39     a summary birth index is not public information and is not
1-40     available to the public if:
1-41                 (1)  the fact of an adoption or paternity determination
1-42     can be revealed by the index; or
1-43                 (2)  the index contains specific identifying
1-44     information relating to the parents of a child who is the subject
1-45     of an adoption placement.
1-46           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-47     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-48     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-49     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-50     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-51     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-52     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-53                                  * * * * *