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 * * * * *