HBA-JEK H.B. 2639 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2639
By: Dutton
Elections
4/3/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

People help their communities obtain state and federal funding when they
complete the mandatory federal decennial census (census).  Under current
law, the approximately 135,000 individuals incarcerated in Texas prisons
are counted at the address of the correctional facility.  A significant
number of these incarcerated persons will return to their home communities,
use their community's resources, and may vote in future elections.
Redistricting is also based on the census numbers; therefore, to obtain a
more accurate count for redistricting purposes, incarcerated individuals
should be counted at the last address at which the individual resided
before being incarcerated.  House Bill 2639  requires the comptroller to
adjust the population counts reported in the census so that an inmate is
counted at the  last address at which the person resided before
incarceration. 

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. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 2639 amends the Government Code to require the comptroller to
prepare and disseminate adjusted population counts for each geographic unit
included in the federal decennial census (census) counts so that each unit
includes the last address at which an inmate resided before the person's
incarceration rather than the address of the facility where the person is
incarcerated.  The bill requires the comptroller to adjust all relevant
population counts reported in the census totals and requires the
adjustments to be made no later than the September 1 following the date on
which the tract-level population counts for Texas are released by the
director of the Bureau of the Census of the United State Department of
Commerce. The bill requires the adjusted census counts to be used for
redistricting, and authorizes a state governmental body or political
subdivision to exceed the adjusted population restrictions only to the
extent necessary to comply with federal law. 

H.B. 2639 requires each state or local governmental entity that operates a
facility for the incarceration of persons convicted of a criminal offense
to file a report containing the name, last address, and other identifying
information of incarcerated persons no later than June 1 of each census
year.  The bill requires each applicable governmental entity to report no
later than October 1, 2001, on each person incarcerated on April 1, 2001,
and requires the comptroller to prepare adjusted population counts by
January 1, 2002, for each geographic unit included in the 2000 census.  The
bill requires the comptroller to request each agency that operates a
federal facility in this state that incarcerates persons convicted of a
criminal offense to provide the comptroller with a report including the
information specified in the bill. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act
takes effect September 1, 2001.