BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1546|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1546
Author: Olsen (R), et al.
Amended: 6/21/16 in Senate
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/15/16
AYES: Hernandez, Nguyen, Hall, Mitchell, Monning, Nielsen,
Pan, Roth, Wolk
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 1/27/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Vital records
SOURCE: California State Association of Counties
County Recorders' Association of California
DIGEST: This bill permits local registrars to release vital
record indices to the county recorder within its jurisdiction,
as specified. Permits the Department of Public Health (DPH) to
suspend the use of any security feature required under existing
law if necessary to supply an applicant with a certified copy of
a birth, death, or marriage record. Requires DPH, in
consultation with the County Recorders' Association of
California and other stakeholders, to study all security
features for paper used to print vital records, and to submit a
report to the Legislature.
ANALYSIS:
AB 1546
Page 2
Existing law:
1)Requires the Director of the DPH, acting as the State
Registrar, to administer the registration of births, deaths,
fetal deaths, and marriages.
2)Establishes the Office of Vital Records within DPH to maintain
a uniform system for registration and a permanent central
registry with a comprehensive and continuous index for all
birth, death, fetal death, marriage and dissolution
certificates registered for vital events which occur in
California.
3)Requires that specified birth, death, and marriage record
indices prepared or maintained by local registrars and county
recorders be kept confidential. Permits the State Registrar,
at his or her discretion, to release vital record indices to a
government agency. Requires, notwithstanding this requirement,
local registrars and county recorders to release, when
requested, vital record indices to the State Registrar.
4)Requires that each certified copy of a birth, death, or
marriage record contain specified information and be printed
on sensitized security paper with specified security features,
including: intaglio print; latent image; fluorescent,
consecutive numbering with matching barcode; microprint line;
prismatic printing; watermark; void pantograph, fluorescent
security threads; fluorescent fibers; and, any other security
features deemed necessary by the State Registrar.
This bill:
1)Permits local registrars to release their comprehensive birth
and death record indices to the county recorder within its
jurisdiction for purposes of the preparation or maintenance of
the indices of the county recorder. Requires indices released
to the county recorder to be subject to the same restrictions
applicable to the confidential portion of a certificate of
live birth.
2)Permits DPH to suspend the use of any security feature
described in 4) of existing law above if necessary to enable
the department, a local registrar, county recorder, or county
clerk to supply an applicant with a certified copy of a birth,
AB 1546
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death, or marriage record. Permits DPH to implement this
provision through all-county letters or similar instructions
from the State Registrar without taking regulatory action.
3)Requires DPH, in consultation with the County Recorders'
Association of California and other stakeholders, to study all
security features for paper used to print vital records, or
alternative security features that are equal to or better than
those that are currently mandated. Requires DPH, on or before
January 1, 2018, to submit to the Legislature a report that
contains the findings of the study and legislative
recommendations pertaining to those findings, as specified.
4)Contains an urgency clause that will make this bill effective
upon enactment.
Background
The Office of Vital Records within DPH is charged with
maintaining a uniform system for registration and a permanent
central registry with a comprehensive and continuous index for
all birth, death, fetal death, marriage, and dissolution
certificates registered for vital events which occur in
California, which are over one million events each year.
Certified copies of vital records are available from DPH, 58
county recorders, and 61 local health jurisdictions. According
to DPH, it maintains, and can provide, birth and death records
from 1905 to the present. For marriage records, DPH maintains
and can provide those from 1946 to the present, with some years
excluded. At the local level, birth and death records for
current-year events and one year prior are available from the
county health department; records for all years are maintained
by the county recorder. Public marriage records may be obtained
from the county recorder; confidential marriage records are
available only through the county clerk of the county where the
license was issued.
Printing of vital records. California statute requires vital
records to be printed on chemically sensitized security paper
containing nine specific security features [as specified in 4)
of "Existing law" above]. In early 2015, DPH and local
jurisdictions were aware of only one company (Sekuworks) in the
U.S. that manufactured paper which met the security requirement
for vital records, specifically, intaglio printing. "Intaglio
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printing" is a security feature in which the image is incised
into a surface, and the incised line or sunken area holds the
ink. In June 2015, Sekuworks unexpectedly shut down operations.
Local jurisdictions and DPH were unable to immediately find
another company within the U.S. capable of printing suitably
secure paper. However, paper with appropriate security features
was purchased for these purposes from a Canadian company,
Canadian Bank Note. However, later that month, VeriTrack, Inc.
announced it had purchased the security label and vital
documents production equipment, including intaglio printing,
formerly owned by Sekuworks, and was able to begin producing
custom intaglio printed documents and labels, anti-counterfeit
and tamper-indicating labels, tapes and seals in October 2015.
According to DPH, all jurisdictions either out or in short
supply received supplies of banknote security paper in October
and November 2015 from either Canadian Bank Note or VeriTrack.
While the shortage of banknote security has been mitigated, it
has raised concerns among the sponsors of this bill, the
California State Association of Counties and the County
Recorders' Association of California, that reliance on a very
small number of companies for the state's security paper could
pose a serious future risk.
Comments
Author's statement. According to the author, vital records are
required to be used in a myriad of important tasks, such as
proving identity and managing estates, so it is essential that
Californians have access to copies of their documents. However,
the fact that our state's security paper relies solely on one
company is an enormous risk. AB 1546 will call upon the State
Registrar to study the feasibility of our state's vital record
security measures. To ensure that county offices can continue to
provide citizens with vital records, this bill will authorize
the State Registrar to suspend security features in an
emergency. AB 1546 also allows a local health registrar to share
vital records data with its local recorder for the purposes of
creating and maintaining an index of issued certificates, and
delivering these important documents quickly and securely to the
public. AB 1546 will bring California's vital records into the
21st century and ensure that our constituents can receive their
most precious documents.
AB 1546
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FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.: Yes Local: No
SUPPORT: (Verified6/29/16)
California State Association of Counties (co-source)
County Recorders' Association of California (co-source)
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
County Health Executives Association of California
Health Officers Association of California
Orange County Board of Supervisors
Rural County Representatives of California
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/29/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The California Association of Clerks
and Election Officials writes that when the lone company capable
of supplying paper with intaglio print closed its doors,
California counties discovered the vulnerability that exists in
attempting to comply with the current requirements. The
California State Association of Counties writes that California
is only one of two states which require intaglio printing, and
when Sekuworks closed, the counties were left with declining
amounts of secure paper and limited options for purchasing more.
The County Recorders' Association of California state that the
sudden closure of the only business in the U.S. to produce
Intaglio print paper left California's local governments
scrambling to produce vital records paper that meets the state's
mandated security standards, and the delay in identifying a
vendor to provide the certificate paper resulted in some
counties having to limit the number of certificates that
customers could purchase. The Rural County Representatives of
California writes that while counties have been able to secure
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temporary resolution, this bill will help to provide a permanent
solution to this problem. The Health Officers Association of
California writes that though the shortage has been resolved,
this disruption of services exposed a vulnerability in
California's vital records system, and relying on one company to
produce these security papers is a tremendous risk.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 1/27/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder,
Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina,
Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen,
Patterson, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas,
Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner,
Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
Prepared by:Melanie Moreno / HEALTH / (916) 651-4111
8/15/16 9:47:21
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