HBA-DMD H.B. 1353 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1353
By: Deshotel
Public Safety
4/15/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Current law allows information collected for disaster planning purposes by
certain governmental agencies to be accessed under an open record request.
H.B. 1353 provides that certain information related to physically or
mentally disabled individuals or other medically fragile individuals is
confidential and is excepted from required public disclosure. This bill
specifies which persons and entities must maintain confidentiality of
certain records for physically or mentally disabled individuals or other
medically fragile individuals. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS


SECTION 1.  Amends Subchapter H, Chapter 418, Government Code, by adding
Section 418.175, as follows: 

Sec. 418.175. CERTAIN INFORMATION CONFIDENTIAL. (a) Sets forth that
information relating to physically or mentally disabled individuals or
other medically fragile individuals maintained for the purposes of
emergency management or disaster planning is confidential and is excepted
from the required disclosure under Chapter 552 (Public Information),
Government Code.  

(b) Provides that this section applies to information in the possession of
any person, including the state, a state agency, a political subdivision,
an agency of a political subdivision; or an electric, telecommunications,
gas, or water utility. 

SECTION 2.Emergency clause.
  Effective date: upon passage.