Bill

HB 4094

85(R) - 2017
House Human Services
Senate Health & Human Services
House Human Services
Senate Health & Human Services
Children
Health & Human Services

Vote Recommendation

Yes
  • Neutral
  • Neutral
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Neutral

Author(s)

Stephanie Klick

Sponsor(s)

Carlos Uresti

Bill Caption

Relating to the access of criminal history record information by the Department of Family and Protective Services.

Fiscal Notes

Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB 4094, As Engrossed: a positive impact of $3,646,557 through the biennium ending August 31, 2019.

The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill.

Bill Analysis

Under current law, DFPS is granted the authority to conduct background checks on persons who the department determines is necessary to "ensure the safety or welfare of a child, elderly person, or person with a disability." This bill would limit the pool of individuals for whom DFPS must conduct a background check to those individuals specifically enumerated in the bill.

After a routine review of state statue, the FBI determined that the definition DFPS used for its background checks was too broad, and specifically asked that it be narrowed to those individuals enumerated prior to the language change which took place last session.

In addition to narrowing population of individuals who are subject to background checks by DFPS, the bill also seeks cost saving measures. Under current law, some specific occupations/volunteers are required to complete a name based background check and an FBI background check. Because the FBI background check is more extensive, complete, and less prone to the errors than the name-based check, that second check is duplicative. This bill would drop the requirement of conducting both a name-based background check, and an FBI background check in those cases.

Vote Recommendation Notes

This bill would further our limited government principles by narrowing the list of persons for whom an FBI background check is required and eliminating a name based background check for some occupations and volunteers, thereby saving the state money and time on a duplicative background check. For these reasons, we support this bill.