HBA-NRS C.S.S.B. 293 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.S.B. 293 By: West, Royce Public Safety 5/7/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Current law requires the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to ensure that information obtained from a driver's license, commercial driver's license, or personal identification certificate is used only for law enforcement or governmental purposes. C.S.S.B. 293 provides that a person commits an offense if the person knowingly accesses or uses electronically readable information from a driver's license, commercial driver's license, or personal identification certificate or compiles or maintains a database of such information, except under certain circumstances. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly delegated to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission in SECTION 1 (Section 521.126, Transportation Code) of this bill. ANALYSIS C.S.S.B. 293 amends the Transportation Code to modify penalties for the unauthorized use of the electronically readable information (information) on a driver's license, commercial driver's license, or personal identification certificate. The bill provides that a person commits a Class A misdemeanor if the person knowingly accesses or uses the information and provides that it is a state jail felony if the person knowingly compiles or maintains a database of the information. The bill provides that it is an affirmative defense to prosecution under the offense of accessing or using the information that the person accessing or using the information is: _an officer or employee of a state agency accessing or using the information for state purposes; _a merchant accessing or using the information to comply with state or federal law by electronically transcribing personal information onto a check in the course of a commercial transaction, by computing a purchaser's age in the course of selling an age-restricted product, or for check verification; or _a peace officer acting in an official capacity. The bill provides that it is an affirmative defense to prosecution that the person accessing or using the information or compiling or maintaining a database of the information is: _a license deputy issuing a license, stamp, permit, tag, or other similar item through the use of a point-of-sale system; or _an officer or employee of a financial institution electronically transcribing personal information in the course of a financial transaction or electronically capturing and maintaining information about a person conducting a financial transaction that is required to be captured and maintained by a financial institution. The bill requires the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) by rule to establish a program to train TABC employees to search for databases compiled or maintained in violation of these provisions. The rules must require an inspection of a merchant at least once every year. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.S.B. 293 modifies the original bill to specify that a person commits an offense if the person knowingly accesses or uses or compiles and maintains a database of the electronically readable information from a driver's license, commercial driver's license, or personal identification certificate. The substitute provides affirmative defenses to prosecution for these offenses. The substitute requires the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to establish a program to train its employees to search for such databases. The substitute removes provisions from the original authorizing the Texas Department of Public Safety to permit the use of electronically readable information by a seller or lessor of goods or services if the information is used only the purpose of preventing a criminal offense by the seller, lessor, or the customer of the seller or lessor, and the seller or lessor does not retain the information.