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House Bill 2061 on fast track It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your Social Security number is?
Fort Bend Herald March-03-07 - Reprinted with permission The Texas Legislature has fast-tracked House Bill 2061 in an effort to find resolution for the chaos created by the attorney general's ruling on Social Security numbers in public records. The bill amends the government code to state that a county or district clerk is not liable for the disclosure, in the ordinary course of business, of a Social Security number contained in information held by the county or district clerk. However, the county or district clerk shall establish a procedure for redaction of a Social Security number in information held by the clerk, including information available on an Internet Web site maintained by the clerk. It has been clear this past week that clerks around the state have made it difficult for the public to access public records in reaction to the AG's ruling. Some of those reactions probably were undertaken to force legislation that includes absolution for the clerk's themselves. In the analysis provided for the proposed bill, though, there are a couple of matters we must address - and we urge our representatives to ponder as well. They are there, by the way, to protect their constituents. "This bill amends the Government Code, to state that the Social Security number of a living person is not confidential under the Public Information Act," the analysis says. How that can be reconciled with the federal Social Security Act will take some explaining. But another facet of the bill also is one of concern. The onus for getting Social Security numbers removed from public documents has been placed on the citizens, once again removing any responsibility for the clerks we entrust with handling our records. We take issue with that portion of this bill. We hesitate to guess how many records in the state of Texas include Social Security numbers, and even more, we doubt citizens realize which of these documents have their Social Security numbers attached to them. Here's an example. If a citizen has mineral rights in a Texas county, and a lease is signed requiring a contract that more than likely will be filed in that county, the Social Security number is probably part of that public record. The bill calls for clerks to redact the numbers in a reasonable time "upon receiving a written request from the living person or that person's authorized representative that identifies the specific document or documents from which the number shall be redacted." We urge our representatives to weigh carefully the impact of these bills. We elect our public officials and expect them to be accountable, and that includes the people who are charged with taking care of our public records.
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