AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
The comptroller’s office is required by statute to maintain records of state expenditures. In order to fulfill this requirement, the agency maintains a database of state payees. The Texas Identification Number System tracks state expenditures and payee information that includes state employees, governmental entities, and vendors. Each payee is then assigned a Texas Identification Number.
Initially, an employee’s Texas Identification Number was based on the employee’s Social Security number. In order to comply with federal and state laws that protect the confidentiality of Social Security numbers, the agency converted all of its SSN-based Texas Identification Numbers to generic identification numbers in 2014.
H.B. 1443 revises the Government Code to reflect the comptroller’s current practice of ensuring greater protection of employees' Social Security numbers.
H.B. 1443 amends current law relating to the Texas Identification Number system.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Sections 403.039(a) and (b), Government Code, as follows:
(a) Requires the comptroller of public accounts of the State of Texas (comptroller) to assign a Texas Identification Number to each person who supplies property or services to the state for compensation or reimbursement, rather than requires the comptroller to assign a Texas Identification Number, based on the comptroller's taxpayer identification number system, to each person, other than a state employee, who supplies property or services to the state for compensation or reimbursement.
(b) Requires that the Texas Identification Number system be used by each state agency as the primary identification system for persons who supply property or services to the agency for compensation or reimbursement, rather than requires that the Texas Identification Number system be used by each state agency as the primary identification system for persons, other than state employees, who supply property or services to the agency for compensation or reimbursement.
SECTION 2. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2015.