SPONSOR: Schulte
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Legislative Review by a vote of 8 to 0. Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Rules-Legislative by a vote of 8 to 0.
Currently, it is unlawful for any person to permit the inspection of, or to disclose information that is contained in, vital records, except in certain circumstances - one of which is that a list of persons who were born or who died on a particular date may be disclosed to a person upon his or her request, but no information from the record apart from the name and the relevant date will be disclosed.
This bill repeals that authorization.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that in Missouri, the Division of Community and Public Health oversees the Bureau of Vital Records, and normally that data are protected, confidential, or redacted. In our statute there is a section that allows any person or entity to request the information. Persons requesting the data can receive name, date of birth, and date of death. Ancestry mapping requests every ding of vital record history, capturing records of everyone who was born or died here, and for every Missourian whose info we have, that info can be released relating to those three data points. Malicious actors can access personal information, which can open doors to illicit activities. No other state has a provision like this one. Entities have gotten this information from the sState and published it online.
Testifying in person for the bill were Representative Schulte; Ben Terrell, Department of Health and Senior Services.
OPPONENTS: There was no opposition voiced to the committee.
Written testimony has been submitted for this bill. The full written testimony and witnesses testifying online can be found under Testimony on the bill page on the House website.
Statutes affected: