BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 551

By: Swanson

State Affairs

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The bill author has informed the committee that requiring volunteers, advocates, and paid employees to provide their residential address on a public document as compensation for contributing time, resources, or labor to a campaign for a candidate that they support presents dangerous situations and that campaigns often attract volunteers who are still minors but who are passionate about the political system. Additionally, the bill author has informed the committee that publicly posting someone's address leaves them vulnerable to harassment or worse by a bad actor, political opponent, or corrupt official. Currently, the Texas Ethics Commission requires that individuals on campaign finance reports disclose an address, which is then made publicly available. The bill author further informed the committee that, while it is important to have the addresses of those who donate to or receive money from a campaign on record, it is not necessary to have that specific information available to the general public. H.B. 551 provides for the removal of the residential address of an individual listed as having received a political expenditure, other than the city, state, and zip code of that address, before making such a report available on the Internet.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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. 551 amends the Election Code to require the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC), in prescribing the format of a campaign finance report, to ensure the report includes a space to indicate whether the address of an individual listed as having received a political expenditure is a residence address. The bill requires the TEC, before making such a report available on the Internet, to remove each portion of the residence address of an individual listed as having received a political expenditure, other than the city, state, and zip code of that address, if the individual's address is indicated in that space on the report as being a residence address. The bill applies only to a report that is required to be filed on or after January 1, 2026.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.