1-1     By:  Shapleigh                                        S.B. No. 1079
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 9, 1999; March 11, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
 1-4     April 26, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 8, Nays 0; April 26, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1079               By:  Shapleigh
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to the duties of the office of the attorney general with
1-11     regard to the public information law.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 552, Government Code, is
1-14     amended by adding Section 552.009 to read as follows:
1-15           Sec. 552.009.  TOLL-FREE NUMBER; ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE.
1-16     The attorney general shall provide a statewide toll-free number by
1-17     which members of the public may contact the open records division
1-18     of the office of the attorney general.  Each governmental body
1-19     shall post the number at the place that the governmental body is
1-20     required to post a notice of a meeting under Chapter 551.  A
1-21     governmental body that is not subject to Chapter 551 shall post the
1-22     number at a place convenient to the public in or by the
1-23     administrative offices of the governmental body.  A governmental
1-24     body shall post with the toll-free number a brief description, to
1-25     be prescribed by the attorney general, of the division's function.
1-26           SECTION 2.  Section 552.321, Government Code, is amended to
1-27     read as follows:
1-28           Sec. 552.321. SUIT FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS.  A requestor or the
1-29     attorney general may file suit for a writ of mandamus compelling a
1-30     governmental body to make information available for public
1-31     inspection if the governmental body refuses to request an attorney
1-32     general's decision as provided by Subchapter G  or refuses to
1-33     supply public information that is not excepted from required
1-34     disclosure or information that the attorney general has determined
1-35     is public information that is not excepted from required
1-36     disclosure.
1-37           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-38     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-39     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-40     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-41     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-42     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-43     passage, and it is so enacted.
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