The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Keffer, allows county and district clerks to disclose "in the ordinary course of business" Social Security numbers contained in public records maintained by their offices. It also holds that such disclosure is not "official misconduct and does not subject the clerk to civil or criminal liability" under the state's privacy laws.

The measure also states that Social Security numbers should not be included in future public records filed with county governments. And it gives individuals the right to ask that their Social Security numbers be removed from existing public records. In such cases, all but the last four digits of the numbers will be removed, but it is up to the individuals to identify the specific documents from which the numbers are to be redacted.

The bill now moves to the Senate for approval. If passed by a two-thirds majority, it would go into effect immediately.

The legislation effectively neuters a recent opinion by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott ruling the disclosure of Social Security numbers in public documents to be a violation of both state and federal privacy laws. Abbott's Feb. 23 opinion basically made it a criminal offense -- punishable by jail time and fines -- for clerks to disclose Social Security numbers when making court records available to the public. In effect it would have forced courthouse clerks to check for Social Security numbers on each of the millions of pages of public records they maintain and then redact them from the documents in which they exist.

The ruling came in response to an inquiry by Fort Bend County's district attorney in 2005 about how its county clerk was expected to deal with Social Security numbers when they are present in public records.