HBA-BSM, MSH H.B. 799 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 799
By: Gallego
State Affairs
2/21/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, the Motor Vehicle Records Disclosure Act is located in the
Transportation Code.  In addition, under current law there are several
situations in which personal information contained in a motor vehicle
record may be disclosed to a requestor.  These situations include
legitimate governmental uses and situations in which a requestor seeks to
use the information for other business purposes.  In this situation,
current law only gives the individual whose information is being sought  an
opportunity to expressly prohibit such a disclosure .  House Bill 799
transfers portions of the Motor Vehicle Records Disclosure Act from the
Transportation Code to the public information statute in the Government
Code, and prohibits disclosure of certain personal information unless
written consent is obtained for the information. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking
authority is expressly delegated to an agency of this state that compiles
or maintains motor vehicle records in SECTION 1 (Section 552.137,
Government Code) of this bill. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 799 amends the Government and Transportation codes to transfer
certain provisions of the Motor Vehicle Records Disclosure Act from the
Transportation Code to the public information statute of the Government
Code.  The bill also prohibits a governmental body from disclosing personal
information that is collected, assembled, or maintained by the governmental
body about an individual in connection with the issuance of a license to
the individual by the governmental body other than the individual's name,
address, and date of birth unless other applicable law permits the
disclosure or the individual consents in writing to the disclosure (Secs.
552.136 and 552.137). 


In addition, in a situation where information may be released in accordance
with law, each state agency that maintains or compiles motor vehicle
records is required, by rule, to prescribe the amount of a fee to be
charged to the requestor for providing the information (Sec. 552.137). 

The bill also repeals provisions of law allowing the disclosure of
information from a person's motor vehicle record only if the requestor
agrees not to have the information published on the Internet (SECTION 11). 

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.