BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 576

By: Sheffield

State Affairs

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Current law requires many state agencies to mail various publications to state legislators at great expense due to reproduction and payroll costs associated with distribution. It is important for the state to cut costs and save money and time wherever possible. Conserving paper and reducing paper waste is a side benefit. This bill seeks to allow state agencies to distribute more publications electronically, while preserving a legislator's option to receive a paper copy of an agency publication. 

C.S.H.B. 576 requires that notice of the availability of the publication be sent electronically, and authorizes a legislator to notify the agency about the legislator's preference electronically.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 576, applicable to most nonlegislative state agencies including a university system or institution of higher education, amends provisions of the Government Code relating to the availability to legislators of state agency reports. The bill requires the agency to send an electronic, rather than a written, notice of reports that are not required by law, to each legislator to determine whether the legislator wants to receive a publication relating to the agency's work before the agency distributes it. The bill authorizes a legislator, in notifying the agency that the legislator wants to receive the publication, to notify the agency electronically. The bill requires that notice of the availability of a report that is required by law be sent to each legislator electronically. The bill removes provisions that such notice be sent by mail or that it be sent electronically only if that is acceptable to the legislator.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the act does not receive the necessary vote, the act takes effect September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 576 differs from the original by authorizing a legislator, rather than requiring a legislator, when notifying an agency that the legislator wants to receive a publication, to notify the agency electronically.