BILL ANALYSIS
AB 130
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 130 (Jeffries)
As Amended April 27, 2009
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 10-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Tran, Brownley, |Ayes:|De Leon, Nielsen, |
| |Evans, Jones, Knight, | |Ammiano, |
| |Krekorian, Lieu, | |Charles Calderon, Davis, |
| |Monning, Nielsen | |Duvall, Fuentes, Hall, |
| | | |Harkey, Miller, |
| | | |John A. Perez, Price, |
| | | |Skinner, Solorio, Audra |
| | | |Strickland, Torlakson, |
| | | |Krekorian |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Seeks to control the release of, and access to,
marriage records. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the State Registrar to keep marriage record indices
confidential and exempt from the Public Records Act, except as
specified.
2)Prohibits marriage files released to the public from
containing the mothers' maiden names.
3)Provides that the State Registrar, local registrar or county
recorder may provide a certified copy of a marriage record to
an authorized person, as defined, who submits a statement
sworn under penalty of perjury that the requester is an
authorized person. Provides that, in all other cases in which
the requester does not meet the requirements of an authorized
person, a certified copy may be provided to the requester but
the document shall be an informational certified copy and
shall be redacted, as specified. Requires the certified copy
to contain the statement "INFORMATIONAL, NOT A VALID DOCUMENT
TO ESTABLISH IDENTITY."
4)Requires that certified copies of marriage records contain
specified information and be printed on sensitized security
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paper with specified features, including, among other things,
a watermark, fluorescent security threads, and fluorescent
fibers and requires that the State Registrar, local
registrars, county recorders, and county clerks take
precautions to safeguard the security paper.
5)Requires an applicant for a certified copy of a marriage
record to pay an additional $1 fee, $.65 of which, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, is to be used by the State
Registrar to develop safety and security measures to protect
against fraudulent use of marriage, birth and death records,
and $.35 of which is to be used by the public official charged
with the collection of the fee to defray additional security
costs, as specified.
6)Requires the Vital Records Protection Advisory Committee,
which is studying and making recommendations to protect
individual privacy, inhibit identity theft, and prevent fraud
involving birth and death certificates while still providing
needed access to those records to those seeking them for
legitimate purposes, to include marriage records in its study.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the State Registrar to prepare and maintain
comprehensive and continuous indices of all certificates
registered. Provides that birth and death record indices be
kept confidential and exempt from the Public Records Act,
except as specified.
2)Limits who may have access to birth and death data files and
what may be in those files, including requiring that specified
personal identifiers, such as mother's maiden name and social
security number, be deleted from files released to the public.
3)Provides that the State Registrar, local registrar or county
recorder may provide a certified copy of a birth or death
record to an authorized person, as defined, who submits a
statement sworn under penalty of perjury that the requester is
an authorized person. Provides that, in all other cases in
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which the requester does not meet the requirements of an
authorized person, a certified copy may be provided to the
requester but the document shall be an informational certified
copy and shall be redacted to remove any signatures that
appear on the document. Requires the certified copy to
contain the statement "INFORMATIONAL, NOT A VALID DOCUMENT TO
ESTABLISH IDENTITY."
4)Requires that certified copies of birth and death records must
contain specified information and be printed on sensitized
security paper with specified features, including, among other
things, a watermark, fluorescent security threads, and
fluorescent fibers and requires that the State Registrar,
local registrars, county recorders, and county clerks take
precautions to safeguard the security paper.
5)Requires an applicant for a certified copy of a birth or death
record to pay an additional $1 fee, $.65 of which is, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, to be used by the State
Registrar to develop safety and security measures to protect
against fraudulent use of birth and death records, and $.35 of
which is to be used by the public official collecting the fee
to defray additional security costs, as specified.
6)Requires the State Registrar to appoint a Vital Records
Protection Advisory Committee to study and make
recommendations to protect individual privacy, inhibit
identity theft, and prevent fraud involving birth and death
certificates, while still providing needed access to birth and
death record information to those seeking it for legitimate
purposes.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, it is estimated that the additional $1 fee will
generate annual revenues of $420,000, of which $273,000 will be
used by the State Registrar and $147,000 will be used by local
registrars and recordings to implement the bills requirements.
COMMENTS : In order to prevent fraud and identity theft, AB 247
(Speier), Chapter 914, Statutes of. 2002, and AB 1614 (Speier),
Chapter 712, Statutes of 2002, established controls for the
release of, and access to, birth and death records. This bill,
sponsored by County Recorders Association of California, seeks
to apply those same controls to marriage records.
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This bill adds marriage records to the access restrictions that
already apply to birth and death records. As a result, this
bill will protect access to these records in several ways.
First, the bill limits access to indices of marriage records
that the State Registrar is required to maintain, just as access
to the indices of birth and death records are currently limited.
Second, this bill directs the State Registrar's Vital Records
Protection Advisory Committee, which is studying and making
recommendations to protect individual privacy, inhibit identity
theft, and prevent fraud involving birth and death certificates
while still providing needed access to those records to those
seeking them for legitimate purposes, to include marriage
records in its study.
Finally, and most importantly, only authorized individuals,
including the people getting married, their immediate family,
and law enforcement, may have access to certified copies of
marriage records. All other individuals may be provided with an
informational certified copy, redacted to remove any signatures
that appear on the document, and containing the following
statement: "INFORMATIONAL, NOT A VALID DOCUMENT TO ESTABLISH
IDENTITY." The bill also requires that certified copies of
marriage records must contain the same special security features
that certified copies of birth and death records now contain in
order to prevent their alternation and misuse.
By restricting access to certified copies of marriage records,
this bill requires an applicant for a certified copy of a
marriage record to pay an additional $1 fee, $.65 of which is to
be used by the State Registrar to develop safety and security
measures to protect against fraudulent use of these records, and
$.35 of which is to be used by the public official collecting
the fee to help pay for the additional security costs. This is
the same additional fee that applicants for certified copies of
birth and death records must pay to defray the costs of the
additional security measures for those documents.
Analysis Prepared by : Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916)
319-2334
FN: 0001083
AB 130
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