| 1 | 1 | | 81R3049 MCK-D |
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| 2 | 2 | | By: Veasey H.B. No. 481 |
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| 3 | 3 | | |
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| 4 | 4 | | |
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| 5 | 5 | | A BILL TO BE ENTITLED |
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| 6 | 6 | | AN ACT |
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| 7 | 7 | | relating to an open document format for electronic state documents. |
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| 8 | 8 | | BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
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| 9 | 9 | | SECTION 1. Subchapter F, Chapter 2054, Government Code, is |
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| 10 | 10 | | amended by adding Section 2054.133 to read as follows: |
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| 11 | 11 | | Sec. 2054.133. OPEN DOCUMENT FORMAT REQUIRED. (a) In this |
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| 12 | 12 | | section, "state agency" means: |
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| 13 | 13 | | (1) a board, commission, council, department, office, |
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| 14 | 14 | | authority, or other agency in the executive branch of state |
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| 15 | 15 | | government created under the constitution or a statute of the |
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| 16 | 16 | | state, including an institution of higher education as defined by |
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| 17 | 17 | | Section 61.003, Education Code; |
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| 18 | 18 | | (2) the legislature or a legislative agency; or |
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| 19 | 19 | | (3) an appellate court or an agency in the judicial |
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| 20 | 20 | | branch of state government, including the State Bar of Texas. |
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| 21 | 21 | | (b) Each electronic document created, exchanged, or |
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| 22 | 22 | | maintained by a state agency must be created, exchanged, or |
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| 23 | 23 | | maintained in an open, Extensible Markup Language based file |
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| 24 | 24 | | format, specified by the department, that is: |
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| 25 | 25 | | (1) interoperable among diverse internal and external |
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| 26 | 26 | | platforms and applications; |
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| 27 | 27 | | (2) published without restrictions or royalties; |
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| 28 | 28 | | (3) fully and independently implemented by multiple |
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| 29 | 29 | | software providers on multiple platforms without any intellectual |
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| 30 | 30 | | property reservations for necessary technology; and |
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| 31 | 31 | | (4) controlled by an open industry organization with a |
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| 32 | 32 | | well-defined inclusive process for evolution of the standard. |
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| 33 | 33 | | (c) Each state agency must be able to receive electronic |
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| 34 | 34 | | documents in an open, Extensible Markup Language based file format |
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| 35 | 35 | | for office applications and may not change documents to a file |
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| 36 | 36 | | format used by only one vendor. |
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| 37 | 37 | | (d) The department shall develop guidelines for state |
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| 38 | 38 | | agencies to follow in determining whether existing electronic |
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| 39 | 39 | | documents must be converted to an open, Extensible Markup Language |
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| 40 | 40 | | based file format. In developing guidelines under this subsection, |
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| 41 | 41 | | the department shall consider: |
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| 42 | 42 | | (1) the cost of converting electronic documents; |
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| 43 | 43 | | (2) the need for public access to the documents; and |
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| 44 | 44 | | (3) the expected storage life of the documents. |
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| 45 | 45 | | SECTION 2. Not later than September 1, 2010, the Department |
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| 46 | 46 | | of Information Resources shall develop the guidelines required by |
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| 47 | 47 | | Section 2054.133(d), Government Code, as added by this Act. |
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| 48 | 48 | | SECTION 3. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this |
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| 49 | 49 | | section, Section 2054.133, Government Code, as added by this Act, |
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| 50 | 50 | | applies only to electronic documents created on or after the |
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| 51 | 51 | | effective date of this Act. |
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| 52 | 52 | | (b) Section 2054.133, Government Code, as added by this Act, |
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| 53 | 53 | | applies to electronic documents created, exchanged, or maintained |
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| 54 | 54 | | before the effective date of this Act only to the extent required by |
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| 55 | 55 | | the guidelines developed by the Department of Information Resources |
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| 56 | 56 | | under Section 2054.133(d), Government Code, as added by this Act. |
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| 57 | 57 | | SECTION 4. This Act takes effect December 1, 2009. |
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