ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
for
H. B. 2996
(By Delegates Spencer and Mahan)
[Passed March 11, 1999; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT to amend and reenact section five, article three, chapter
four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, relating to providing access to
information contained in the Legislature's computer system.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section five, article three, chapter four of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. JOINT COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT AND FINANCE.
§4-3-5. Computer subscriber system.
(a) The joint committee on government and finance is
authorized to provide information from portions of the
Legislature's computer data to persons through the internet, or
through other means approved by the committee, for noncommercial
use, with or without charge. The committee may charge and
collect fees for providing or licensing portions of the data
maintained in the Legislature's computer databases to persons requesting the data.
(b) The joint committee on government and finance shall,
prior to the twelfth day of January, two thousand, consider how
best to provide, through the internet or other means, free
public-access to appropriate information maintained in the
Legislature's computer databases. The committee shall consider
providing free public access through the internet, or other
appropriate means, to bill status information, the text of
pending bills, the daily journals of the House of Delegates and
the Senate, the West Virginia code, and any other information
determined appropriate by the committee, all as maintained by the
Legislature in its computer databases. In determining what
information to which to provide free access, the committee shall
consider how the access may affect the integrity, security and
functionality of the Legislature's computer system and its
primary use of supporting its legislative functions.
(c) No part of the information contained in the
Legislature's computer system databases in its magnetic or
electronic form is a public record as that term is defined in
section two, article one, chapter twenty-nine-b of this code.
Notwithstanding any provisions of section three, article one,
chapter twenty-nine-b of this code to the contrary, the
Legislature may not be required or compelled to allow access to
all or a portion of its databases for inspection and copying and
may not be required to make available copies of all or a portion
of its databases on magnetic or electronic media.