By Garcia H.B. No. 3169
76R4634 JD-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the availability of public information under and to the
1-3 enforcement of the public information law.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 552, Government Code, is
1-6 amended by adding Section 552.0065 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 552.0065. GROUNDS FOR WITHHOLDING PUBLIC INFORMATION.
1-8 (a) An officer for public information or the officer's agent may
1-9 not refuse to give access to public information to a requestor or
1-10 refuse to permit or provide copying of public information to a
1-11 requestor as provided by this chapter unless the officer or the
1-12 officer's agent reasonably believes that public access to the
1-13 requested information is not required and:
1-14 (1) the officer or the officer's agent is acting in
1-15 reasonable reliance on a court order or a written interpretation of
1-16 this chapter contained in an opinion of a court of record or of the
1-17 attorney general issued under Subchapter G;
1-18 (2) the officer for public information requested a
1-19 decision from the attorney general in accordance with Subchapter G,
1-20 and the decision is pending; or
1-21 (3) no later than the 10th calendar day after the date
1-22 that the decision of the attorney general that the information is
1-23 public was received, the governmental body, the officer for public
1-24 information, or another person or entity filed a petition for a
2-1 declaratory judgment, a writ of mandamus, or both, against the
2-2 attorney general in a Travis County district court seeking relief
2-3 from compliance with the decision of the attorney general, and the
2-4 petition is pending.
2-5 (b) An officer for public information or the officer's agent
2-6 who refuses to provide access to or refuses to permit or provide
2-7 copying of information under Subsection (a) must provide the
2-8 requestor with a written statement of the reasons for the refusal.
2-9 (c) The written statement must identify the exception that
2-10 allows the information to be withheld and must be provided to the
2-11 requestor no later than the 15th day after the date the request for
2-12 access to or copying of the information is received by the officer
2-13 for public information or the officer's agent.
2-14 SECTION 2. Section 552.351, Government Code, is amended by
2-15 adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
2-16 (c) A violation under this section constitutes official
2-17 misconduct.
2-18 SECTION 3. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-19 (b) The change in law made by Section 1 of this Act applies
2-20 only to a request for access to or copying of public information
2-21 received by an officer for public information or the officer's
2-22 agent on or after September 1, 1999.
2-23 (c) The change in law made by Section 2 of this Act applies
2-24 only to an offense committed on or after September 1, 1999. An
2-25 offense committed before September 1, 1999, is covered by the law
2-26 in effect when the offense was committed, and the former law is
2-27 continued in effect for that purpose. For purposes of this
3-1 subsection, an offense was committed before September 1, 1999, if
3-2 any element of the offense was committed before that date.
3-3 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-4 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-5 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-6 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-7 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.