Now that Texas Clerks are safe, it's time to protect the rest of us

In a free society, the primary function of government is to protect its citizens. Last month, the Texas legislature passed an emergency bill to protect county clerks from liability when they fail to comply with this most basic premise of responsible government. Now it's time to protect the rest of us.

County Clerks in Texas need to know that a single mistake will not land them in jail, the rest of us need to know that a single mistake by a few reckless clerks will not put us all at risk.

House Bill 59 will provide the guidance our clerks need and the protection all Texans deserve.

Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock pre-filed House Bill 59 last January. HB 59 is a critical legislative proposal protecting social security numbers and other private personal data for Texans.

On Monday evening, March 5th, 2007, the Texas House of Representatives passed HB2061 to protect County Clerks from liability when releasing sensitive personal information, namely Social Security Numbers.

The measure was proposed as a temporary fix to the recent, seal-off of public documents in some County Courthouses, prompted by an Attorney General’s opinion. The AG's ruling stated that all social security numbers must be redacted from public records before the documents were published over the Internet or released to the public.

However, while the bill provides immediate cover from an untenable position for some clerks, the bill intensifies the problem of freely accessible sensitive personal information.

“HB59 represents three years of work and if adopted will go a long way towards protecting social security numbers and other sensitive personal information” said Rep. Isett. “The legislature is beginning to realize that this is a major problem.”

“We have accepted that there is a problem, and we just passed a bill that potentially makes it an even bigger problem” said Rep. Isett. “I voted for HB2061 as a needed quick-fix to the courthouse closures. But we have to pass something like HB59 or else we’re saying that federal privacy law from 1990 does not matter in Texas and I think that’s unacceptable.”

House Bill 59 would prohibit a state or local government entity from disclosing a social security number, and certain other personal information, unless the Attorney General authorizes that disclosure.

“We need to work together to pass a bill that protects social security numbers and doesn’t cause an administrative nightmare at our courthouses” Isett said. “It’s time to do what we should have been doing for the last 17 years.”

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