Texas Legislature, Senate:

An Inventory of Bill Files of Senator J.E. Buster Brown at the Texas State Archives, 1981-2001 (bulk 1999-2001)

Biographical Sketch

Texas State Senator J.E. "Buster" Brown was born and raised in the south Texas town of Mercedes. Brown attended Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos and graduated from Texas A&I University in Kingsville with a B.S. in Secondary Education. Following graduation, he taught high school government and history in Corpus Christi before furthering his education at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin. He graduated with an LLB/JD in 1967, and was appointed a briefing attorney by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. In 1968, he became Assistant District Attorney and Prosecutor for Brazoria County. Brown entered private law practice in 1972 and, as of 2002, has continued his law and mediation practice in Lake Jackson. He was elected on the Republican platform in 1980 to represent Senate District 17, encompassing portions of Harris, Fort Bend and Brazoria counties and including more than 600,000 constituents. At his retirement in 2002, Brown was the senior ranking Republican member of the Texas Senate and had sponsored 633 bills which became Texas law.

As a member and chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, Senator Brown authored the Brown-Lewis Water Management Plan and later continued this effort with legislation addressing implementation and financing of the state's water plan. The Senator was involved in work to meet the federal Clean Air Act standards, founded the Texas Water Foundation, and co-founded the Texas Council on Environmental Technology. Additionally, he authored the Texas Emission Reduction Plan, secured the passage of the Petroleum Storage Tank Law, worked to clean up hazardous waste, created the "Rigs to Reef" program, authored legislation to give local landowners and communities more input into the endangered species protection laws, and created the Wetlands Protection Act.

During his terms in the Senate, Brown also served on the Administration and Jurisprudence Committees, among others, where he was involved in creating Texas' original child pornography statute, bringing private jail facilities holding out-of-state inmates under the regulation of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, authoring the Crime Victims Bill of Rights and enhancing the Texas death penalty statute to include murder of a child, working to protect jurors from harassment, and drafting legislation to increase the penalties and reporting/registering requirements for sex offenders.

In other areas, Senator Brown served as a member of the Joint Interim Committee on the Family Code, authored the law which extended the Property Redevelopment and Tax Abatement Act, sponsored legislation strengthening Health and Human Services Commission, and co-authored major tort reform legislation. The Texas Aerospace Commission was created through legislation authored by Senator Brown, as was the NASA cooperative education program, which creates high school and university level cooperative education programs through NASA and the Johnson Space Center.

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Scope and Contents of the Records

Copies of legislative bills, requests for hearings, clippings, talking points, witness lists, bill analyses, fiscal notes, reports, correspondence, memoranda, printed materials, notes, and drafting requests, dating 1981-2001 (bulk 1999-2001), comprise the bill files of Texas State Senator J.E. "Buster" Brown. The files include a few bills from the 73rd through 75th Legislative Sessions (1993-1997) but the majority cover the 76th (1999) and 77th Legislatures (2001). The files contain information on the bills introduced or sponsored by Senator Brown. Subjects found in the records include judicial compensation and retirement, agency sunset legislation, criminal justice issues, education and technology outreach programs, pension plans and health insurance, the protection of jurors, water resources and conservation, child support liens, NASA and spaceport issues, economic development, and transportation issues. Memoranda and correspondence passed between the Senator, his staff, other legislators, and, occasionally, constituents and other interested parties.

To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

As specified by Senator J.E. "Buster" Brown, all communications between the senator and his constituents are permanently restricted according to V.T.C.A. Texas Government Code, Chapter 306.

Because of the possibility that portions of these records fall under Public Information Act exceptions, an archivist must review these records before they can be accessed for research. The records may be requested for research under the provisions of the Public Information Act (V.T.C.A., Government Code, Chapter 552). The researcher may request an interview with an archivist or submit a request by mail, fax, or email including enough description and detail about the information requested to enable the archivist to accurately identify and locate the information requested. If our review reveals information that may be excepted by the Public Information Act, we are obligated to seek an open records decision from the Attorney General on whether the records can be released. The Public Information Act allows the Archives ten working days after receiving a request to make this determination. The Attorney General has 45 working days to render a decision. Alternately, the Archives can inform you of the nature of the potentially excepted information and if you agree, that information can be redacted or removed and you can access the remainder of the records.

Restrictions on Use

None.

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Related Material

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

(Identify the item), Bill files of Senator J.E. "Buster" Brown, Senate, Texas Legislature. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Accession Information

Accession number: 2003/011

These records were transferred to the Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission by the office of Texas State Senator J.E. "Buster" Brown on September 17, 2002.

Processing Information

Nancy Enneking, October 2002

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Detailed Description of the Records

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