BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                    AB 2636


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          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING


          AB  
          2636 (Linder and Dababneh)


          As Amended  April 12, 2016


          Majority vote


           ------------------------------------------------------------------ 
          |Committee       |Votes|Ayes                  |Noes                |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
          |Health          |19-0 |Wood, Maienschein,    |                    |
          |                |     |Bonilla, Burke,       |                    |
          |                |     |Campos, Chiu,         |                    |
          |                |     |Dababneh, Gomez,      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |Roger Hernández,      |                    |
          |                |     |Lackey, Nazarian,     |                    |
          |                |     |Olsen, Patterson,     |                    |
          |                |     |Ridley-Thomas,        |                    |
          |                |     |Rodriguez, Santiago,  |                    |
          |                |     |Steinorth, Thurmond,  |                    |
          |                |     |Waldron               |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
          |Privacy         |11-0 |Chau, Wilk, Baker,    |                    |
          |                |     |Calderon, Chang,      |                    |
          |                |     |Cooper, Dababneh,     |                    |
          |                |     |Gatto, Gordon, Low,   |                    |
          |                |     |Olsen                 |                    |








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          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
          |Appropriations  |20-0 |Gonzalez, Bigelow,    |                    |
          |                |     |Bloom, Bonilla,       |                    |
          |                |     |Bonta, Calderon,      |                    |
          |                |     |Chang, Daly, Eggman,  |                    |
          |                |     |Gallagher, Eduardo    |                    |
          |                |     |Garcia, Roger         |                    |
          |                |     |Hernández, Holden,    |                    |
          |                |     |Jones, Obernolte,     |                    |
          |                |     |Quirk, Santiago,      |                    |
          |                |     |Wagner, Weber, Wood   |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
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          SUMMARY:  Allows an official, if an electronic request for a  
          certified copy of a birth, death, or marriage record is made, to  
          accept an electronic acknowledgment verifying the identity of  
          the applicant using a remote identity proofing process, as  
          specified, or a notarized statement of identity, to ensure the  
          applicant is authorized under law to receive that record. 


          FISCAL EFFECT:  According to the Assembly Appropriations  
          Committee:  


          1)This bill is permissive, thus it does not have direct costs to  
            the California Department of Public Health (DPH).  However,  
            allowing the use of an electronic option results in  
            significant cost pressure to DPH to establish secure  
            electronic verification methodology for vital records. 


            If DPH established online verification, it is anticipated that  
            two staff would be needed to manage a vendor contract and  
            support the information technology needs for a cost of  








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            $270,000 annually (Health Statistics Special Fund).  Costs for  
            authentication would be paid by the consumer.  It is worth  
            noting the cost to the consumer for digital authentication  
            would likely be significantly less than the cost of having to  
            provide a sworn statement from a notary.


          2)Vital records fee revenue could potentially shift between the  
            state and counties, depending on whether and how the authority  
            in this bill is used.  


          COMMENTS:  According to the author, individuals seeking vital  
          records in California suffer longer wait times and pay  
          significantly higher fees than individuals seeking records in  
          most other states due to outdated statutes that govern vital  
          records request policies.  The author states that county and  
          local staff are significantly burdened by current policies that  
          dictate that a vital records request may only be partially  
          competed online, followed by a notarized affidavit submitted on  
          paper.  This hybrid system of online requesting means,  
          practically, that a vital records request cannot be processed  
          without countless of hours of county staff time wasted because  
          staff must manually attach related documents for each individual  
          request as supporting documentation is submitted.  The author  
          further asserts that California's policies are drastically out  
          of step with national trends to increase access to vital  
          government services through online technologies, as 34 other  
          states and 171 local jurisdictions allow for digital  
          authentication of vital records requests online as a standard  
          matter of practice. 


          Electronic authentication (e-authentication) is the process of  
          establishing confidence in user identities electronically  
          presented to an information system.  E-authentication presents a  
          technical challenge when this process involves the remote  
          authentication of individual people over an open network (i.e.  
          the internet), for the purpose of electronic government and  








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          commerce.  The National Institute of Standards and Technology,  
          under the United States Department of Commerce, released  
          guidelines in 2013 to provide technical guidance to agencies to  
          allow an individual to remotely authenticate his or her identity  
          to a federal information technology system.  These guidelines  
          address only traditional, widely implemented methods for remote  
          authentication based on secrets.  With these methods, the  
          individual whose identity is authenticated proves that he or she  
          knows or possesses some secret information. 


          The Urban Counties Caucus, cosponsor of this bill, writes in  
          support that counties process thousands of these types of  
          requests which can be very time consuming for both county staff  
          and consumers.  This bill would provide a more user-friendly way  
          to get access to these records through established systems that  
          verify the user's identity which could provide significant cost  
          savings to counties and provide better customer service.  The  
          California State Association of Counties, cosponsor of the bill,  
          states that updating vital records requests could also reduce  
          the overall cost for consumers when obtaining vital records.   
          The current fee for a certified copy of a birth certificate in  
          Los Angeles County ranges from $23 to $28, and the average  
          notary fee is an additional $20.  


          Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) opposes on the grounds that  
          substitution of an electronic acknowledgement for a notarized  
          affidavit will facilitate the ability of identity thieves and  
          other fraudsters to obtain vital records that can then be used  
          to engage in criminal acts against Californians.  Vital records  
          contain a wealth of personal information, which if  
          inappropriately released to the wrong person can result in  
          significant privacy violations.  PRC further states that any  
          legislation expanding the ability to obtain vital records online  
          must have sufficient protections in place to protect  
          Californians' sensitive personal information and prevent  
          identity theft and other fraudulent activity. 









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          Analysis Prepared by:                                             
                          John Gilman / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097  FN:  
          0003292