HBA-NLM H.B. 2200 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2200
By: Swinford
County Affairs
3/14/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, the Department of Public Safety (department) is authorized to
disseminate criminal history record information to certain criminal justice
agencies for specific purposes.  However, counties do not possess the
authority to do criminal background checks of all prospective employees.
There is concern that the inability of a county to obtain criminal history
record information on prospective employees may create a security risk to
the citizens of the county. The purpose of this bill is to allow a county
to obtain criminal history information that relates to a person who is
seeking employment with the county. 

H.B. 2200 entitles a county to obtain criminal history record information
from the department relating to prospective county employees unless the
information is being obtained for other specified reasons by the county. 

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 F, Chapter 411, Government Code, by adding
Section 411.1295, as follows: 

Sec. 411.1295. ACCESS TO CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORD INFORMATION: EMPLOYMENT BY
COUNTY. Entitles a county to obtain criminal history record information
from the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas, relating to an
applicant for county employment, except as otherwise provided by this
section.  Provides that a county is not entitled to obtain information
about a person under this section if any criminal history record
information is obtained by the county under another section of this
subchapter. 

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