The department must adopt an internet-posting policy, state agencies must link to it, and certain agencies must post specified spending and governance information online.
Sec. 2054.126. POSTING OF INFORMATION ON INTERNET. (a) The department shall adopt a policy that: (1) prescribes terms under which a person may use, copy information from, or link to a generally accessible Internet site maintained by or for a state agency; and (2) protects the personal information of members of the public who access information from or through a generally accessible Internet site maintained by or for a state agency. (b) The department shall post the policy on its Internet site. A state agency shall prominently post a link to the policy statement on a generally accessible Internet site maintained by or for the agency. (c) The policy shall include a statement: (1) generally allowing the use and reproduction of information on a state agency's Internet site without the state agency's permission, subject to specified conditions; (2) generally allowing linking from a web page to a page on a state agency's Internet site without the state agency's permission, subject to specified conditions; (3) prohibiting a state agency from charging a fee to access, use, reproduce information on, or link to its Internet site except to the extent the state agency is specifically authorized to do so by the legislature; (4) requiring that the state agency's Internet site be credited as the source of information reproduced from the site and requiring that the date that the material was reproduced from the site be clearly stated; (5) prohibiting a state agency from selling or releasing an e-mail address of a member of the public unless the member of the public affirmatively consents to the sale or release of the e-mail address; and (6) specifying other policies necessary to protect from public disclosure personal information submitted by a member of the public to a state agency's Internet site to the extent the information is: (A) confidential; (B) excepted from the requirements of Section 552.021; or (C) protected by other law intended to protect a person's privacy interests. (d) Each state agency, other than an institution of higher education, that receives an aggregate amount of appropriations in the General Appropriations Act for a state fiscal biennium that exceeds $175 million shall post the following information during the biennium on a generally accessible Internet site maintained by or for the agency: (1) an analysis of all agency expenditures during the two preceding state fiscal years that lists each county in the state and states for each county the amount of agency expenditures made in or for the benefit of the county; (2) if the information required to substantially comply with Subdivision (1) is not available, an analysis that approximates compliance with Subdivision (1) to the greatest possible extent by listing agency expenditures according to geographic regions of the state, to the extent possible, and by each field office of the agency; (3) a profile of the governing officer or of each member of the governing body of the agency that includes, among other information, the office address of the officer or member; (4) a listing and description of all contracts with vendors that have a value exceeding $100,000 that the agency has entered into and that are currently being performed or for which performance has not yet begun; (5) a brief description of the agency's duties; and (6) an electronic link to the agency's rules as published in the electronic version of the Texas Administrative Code and an electronic link to any written procedure of the agency relating to agency hearings that is not contained in the electronic version of the Texas Administrative Code. (e) Each state agency that maintains a generally accessible Internet site or for which a generally accessible Internet site is maintained may post on the site any nonconfidential information related to the agency's programs, activities, or functions. (f) Each state agency that maintains a generally accessible Internet site or for which a generally accessible Internet site is maintained shall include a link on the agency's Internet site to the state expenditure database established under Section 403.024. In this subsection, "state agency" has the meaning assigned by Section 403.013. Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1573, Sec. 1, eff. Oct. 1, 1999. Amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 545, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 2001; Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 710, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2001. Renumbered from Government Code Sec. 2054.121 by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1420, Sec. 21.001(69), eff. Sept. 1, 2001. Amended by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 1275, Sec. 2(81), eff. Sept. 1, 2003. Amended by: Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1270 (H.B. 3430), Sec. 4, eff. October 1, 2007.