Gov. Rick Perry and District 134 State Rep. Sarah Davis (R-West University Place) have ushered in legislation that will provide written relics of Texas history temporary protection.
House Bill 1559 will protect historic documents from being destroyed until rules can be adopted for their retention by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
“In many cases, these invaluable documents were being destroyed simply to create space for more recent documents,” Davis said.
In 2009 the Texas Supreme Court established the Texas Court Records Preservation Task Force, which was charged with making recommendations for the preservation and distribution of these documents.
There was a moratorium on the destruction of documents dating before 1860, but documents post dating 1860 remained at risk.
The bill was approved with a 2/3 majority vote in the Legislature and immediately went into effect.
“I sought to have this bill take effect as soon as possible, to prevent any chance of these documents’ destruction in anticipation of the commission adopting their new retention rules later this year,” Davis said.
The bill received support from Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Southside Place), who sponsored the bill, and Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson.
Great work by State Representative Davis to preserve Texas history. Thank you Rep. Davis for all you have done in your first session including serving on Public Health and Judiciary Civil Jurisprudence Committee, passing key tort reform legislation, and hard work on providing hike and bike trails for Houston area. So proud of my State Representative!