HBA-TBM C.S.H.B. 1031 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 1031 By: West, George "Buddy" Public Safety 4/6/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Current Texas law requires information magnetically encoded by the Department of Public Safety onto an identification card to only be accessed or used for law enforcement or governmental purposes. That information could be a valuable tool for merchants of products with age restrictions. C.S.H.B. 1031 modifies penalties for unauthorized use of electronically encoded information on identification cards and authorizes merchants to access the information to determine if customers are underage. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 1031 amends the Transportation Code to modify penalties for the unauthorized use of the electronically readable information (information) on a driver's license, commercial driver's license, or personal identification certificate (license). The bill provides that a person commits a Class A misdemeanor if the person knowingly accesses or uses the information. The bill provides that it is an affirmative defense to prosecution that the person accessing or using the information is: _an officer or employee of the Department of Public Safety who accesses or uses the information for official purposes; _a merchant who accesses or uses the information to electronically transcribe the purchaser's license identification number or the purchaser's date of birth onto a check in the course of a commercial transaction, to compute a purchaser's age in the course of selling an age-restricted product, or for check verification purposes; _a peace officer acting in an official capacity; or _a licensed deputy of the Parks and Wildlife Department issuing a license, stamp, tag, permit, or other similar item through the use of a point-of-sale system. The bill provides that a person commits a state jail felony if the person knowingly compiles or maintains a database of the information. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 1031 differs from the original to include among the affirmative defenses a merchant who accesses or uses the information for check verification purposes and a licensed deputy of the Parks and Wildlife Department who is issuing a sport license or other similar item through the use of a point-of-sale system. The substitute defines "check verification" and modifies the definition of "merchant".