BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1271

By: Martinez Fischer

Technology

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Currently, bills published on the Texas Legislature Online website do not contain hyperlinks to statutory provisions referenced in the bill.  As a result, the public has to manually look up such provisions, and interested parties contend that, in addition to being inconvenient and time-consuming, this process is prone to error.  H.B. 1271 seeks to make finding the content of cross-referenced statutes in bills easier and more accurate.

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

H.B. 1271 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Legislative Council to the extent feasible, if the full text of a house or senate bill as filed, amended, substituted, engrossed, or enrolled includes a state statute section cross-reference or if the full text of an amendment or substitute adopted by a legislative committee for a filed house or senate bill includes a state statute section cross-reference, to include in any electronic version of the applicable document made available to the public through the Internet an electronic link or other method by which a person reading the document may automatically access the text of the referenced section.

EFFECTIVE DATE

November 1, 2014.