BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

 

S.B. 792

By: Duncan

Elections

Committee Report (Unamended)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

Current law requires the secretary of state to maintain a register of all state officers in a separate suitable book. Additionally, the secretary of state is required to send each county clerk in the state a list of states or territories within the United States that require an official seal for certain documents. S.B. 792 seeks to revise these requirements.

 

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

 

S.B. 792 amends the Government Code, in a provision of law requiring the secretary of state to keep a register of all state officers, by removing the specification that the register be kept in a separate suitable book.

 

S.B. 792, in provisions relating to the annual compilation by the secretary of state of a list of states or territories within the United States that require an official seal for certain documents, requires the secretary of state to make the list available to the county clerks of the state, rather than send the list to each county clerk, before January 1 of each year. The bill requires the secretary of state to amend the list and make the amended list available to the county clerks, rather than to immediately send the amended list to the county clerks, if the secretary of state learns that a state or territory has changed its requirements relating to a notary public in a manner that requires it to be added to or deleted from the list.

 

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

September 1, 2011.