By: Menéndez  S.B. No. 801          (In the Senate - Filed January 16, 2025; February 7, 2025,   read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;   April 15, 2025, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 8,   Nays 1; April 15, 2025, sent to printer.)Click here to see the committee vote     A BILL TO BE ENTITLED   AN ACT     relating to the issuance of a certified birth record to a homeless   individual.          BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:          SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 191, Health and Safety   Code, is amended by adding Section 191.00495 to read as follows:          Sec. 191.00495.  BIRTH RECORD ISSUED TO HOMELESS INDIVIDUAL.   (a) In this section, "homeless individual":                (1)  means an individual who:                      (A)  lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate   nighttime residence; or                      (B)  has a primary nighttime residence that is:                            (i)  a supervised publicly or privately   operated shelter designed to provide temporary living   accommodations, including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and   transitional housing for the mentally ill;                            (ii)  an institution that provides a   temporary residence for individuals intended to be   institutionalized; or                            (iii)  a public or private place not   designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping   accommodation for human beings; and                (2)  does not include an individual who is imprisoned   or otherwise detained in a correctional facility.          (b)  On request of a homeless individual, the state   registrar, a local registrar, or a county clerk shall issue,   without fee, a certified copy of the individual's birth record to   the individual.          (c)  The executive commissioner by rule shall:                (1)  adopt a process to verify a person's status as a   homeless individual; and                (2)  prescribe the documentation necessary for   issuance of a certified copy of a birth record to a homeless   individual whose status is verified through the process adopted   under Subdivision (1).          (d)  Notwithstanding any other provision of state law, the   department may not require a homeless individual to provide a   physical address of the individual's residence to satisfy any   requirement of this section.          SECTION 2.  As soon as practicable after the effective date   of this Act, the executive commissioner of the Health and Human   Services Commission shall adopt the rules required by Section   191.00495, Health and Safety Code, as added by this Act.          SECTION 3.  The changes in law made by this Act apply to an   application for a birth record submitted on or after the effective   date of this Act. An application for a birth record submitted before   the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on   the date the application was submitted, and the former law is   continued in effect for that purpose.          SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.     * * * * *