87R2327 BRG-D

By: West S.B. No. 290

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to public access to personal financial statements filed by public officials and candidates.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 572.032, Government Code, is amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:

(a) Financial statements filed under this subchapter are public records. The commission shall maintain the statements in separate alphabetical files and in a manner that is accessible to the public during regular office hours and make each statement available to the public on the commission's Internet website not later than the 15th day after the date the statement is required to be filed or is actually filed, whichever is later.

(d) The commission is not required to continue to make available on its Internet website a financial statement that may be destroyed under Subsection (c). The commission may not make available on its Internet website a financial statement that the commission is required to destroy under Subsection (c).

SECTION 2. Section 572.032(a-1), Government Code, as amended by Chapters 34 (S.B. 1576) and 983 (H.B. 776), Acts of the 85th Legislature, Regular Session, 2017, is reenacted and amended to read as follows:

(a-1) The commission shall remove the home address, the telephone number, and the names of the dependent children of an individual from a financial statement filed by the individual under this subchapter before:

(1) permitting a member of the public to view the statement;

(2) providing a copy of the statement to a member of the public; or

(3) making the statement available to the public on the commission's Internet website[, if the commission makes statements filed under this subchapter available on its website].

SECTION 3. Section 572.032(b), Government Code, is repealed.

SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.