BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center H.B. 1604
By: Keffer, Bill et al. (Shapiro)
AUTHOR'S/SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Currently the Health and Safety Code requires that persons charged with filing a birth certificate or record file these items no later then the fifth day after the date of birth. However, in the Jewish faith, a baby boy is not named until the eighth day after his birth.
H.B. 1604 allows a parent to request, for religious reasons, that the person required to file the birth certificate or report delay the filing until the parent contacts the person with the name of the child. Requires the report to be filed no later than fifteen days after the day the child is born.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 192.003, Health and Safety Code, by amending Subsection (d) and adding Subsection (e), as follows:
(d) Creates an exception to this subsection, as provided by Subsection (e).
(e) Authorizes a parent, based on a parent's religious beliefs, to request that a person required to file a birth certificate or report a birth delay filing the certificate or making the report until the parent contacts the person with the child's name. Requires the parent, if a parent does not name the child before the fifth day after the date of the birth due to the parent's religious beliefs, to contact the person required to file the birth certificate or report the birth with the name of the child as soon as the child is named. Requires a person required to file the birth certificate or report the birth who delays filing the certificate or making the report in accordance with the parent's request to file the certificate or make the report not later than the 15th day after the date of the child's birth.
SECTION 2. Effective date: upon passage or the 91st day after adjournment.