Honorable Kevin Eltife, Chair, Senate Committee on Business & Commerce
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1912 by Elkins (Relating to employment of a statewide data coordinator in the Department of Information Resources.), Committee Report 2nd House, Substituted
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would amend Chapter 2054 of the Government Code, also referred to as the Information Resources Management Act, to add a new section to require the executive director of the Department of Information Resources (DIR) to employ a statewide data coordinator to improve the control and security of information collected by state agencies; promote information sharing between state agencies; and to reduce information collection costs. The statewide data coordinator would be required to develop and implement best practices among state agencies related to information coordination, collection, and sharing. Best practices would also address improvement of information management and analysis; encourage agencies to collect and post data on the internet in an open file format that is machine-readable, exportable, and easily accessible by the public; and encourage the evaluation of open document format for storing data and documents. This section added by the bill would expire on September 1, 2021. DIR indicates that any costs associated with implementation of the bill could be absorbed within existing resources.
Local Government Impact
No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.