1-1     By:  Bosse (Senate Sponsor - Cain)                    H.B. No. 2853
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 27, 2001;
 1-3     April 30, 2001, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Administration; May 11, 2001, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 11, 2001, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to studies performed by, and information gathered and
 1-9     analyzed by, the legislative council.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Chapter 323, Government Code, is amended by
1-12     adding Section 323.013 to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 323.013.  REVIEW OF JUDICIAL DECISIONS INTERPRETING
1-14     STATUTES.  The council shall conduct a continuing study of judicial
1-15     decisions and, before each legislative session, prepare and deliver
1-16     to the appropriate standing committees of each house of the
1-17     legislature a report identifying recent decisions in which courts
1-18     have:
1-19                 (1)  clearly failed to implement legislative purposes;
1-20                 (2)  found two or more statutes to be in conflict;
1-21                 (3)  held a statute unconstitutional;
1-22                 (4)  expressly found a statute to be ambiguous;
1-23                 (5)  expressly suggested legislative action; or
1-24                 (6)  changed a common law doctrine.
1-25           SECTION 2.  Section 323.019(c), Government Code, is amended
1-26     to read as follows:
1-27           (c)  In order to develop and evaluate legislative policy, the
1-28     council is entitled to collect data from any state agency,
1-29     including data that is confidential under state or federal law.  In
1-30     addition to other uses consistent with this section, the council
1-31     may use data collected for the purpose of matching data from
1-32     various agencies.  Confidential data collected by the council does
1-33     not lose its character as confidential information because of its
1-34     collection by the council, and the providing of that data to the
1-35     council does not constitute a release of the information by the
1-36     state agency.  For the purposes of evaluating federally and
1-37     state-supported education programs, or other appropriate purposes
1-38     as authorized by [limited purpose of collecting and matching data
1-39     subject to]  20 U.S.C. Section 1232g or other federal law governing
1-40     education records, employees of the council are considered state
1-41     school officials.
1-42           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
1-43     a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
1-44     provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.  If this
1-45     Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
1-46     Act takes effect on the 91st day after the last day of the
1-47     legislative session.
1-48                                  * * * * *