2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

2025 · Regular session · Senate bill

SB765

SB765 makes information in a governmental body’s custody relating to fraud detection and deterrence measures confidential under the Texas Public Information Act.

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Official caption: Relating to the confidentiality of fraud detection and deterrence information under the public information law.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists Senate author(s): Kolkhorst. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

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Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.

Bill highlights

Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.

SB765 makes information in a governmental body’s custody relating to fraud detection and deterrence measures confidential under the Texas Public Information Act.
The law’s examples include risk assessments, reports, data, protocols, technology specifications, manuals, instructions, investigative materials, crossmatches, mental impressions and communications that may reveal how a governmental body prevents, investigates or evaluates fraud.
The confidentiality protection does not affect sharing authorized by other law for law-enforcement and fraud-detection or prevention purposes.

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What does it do?

SB765 makes information in a governmental body’s custody relating to fraud detection and deterrence measures confidential under the Texas Public Information Act. It is a new statutory confidentiality provision, not merely a suggestion that agencies may prefer secrecy. Signed May 19, 2025, it took effect September 1, 2025. Final act; History; General public-access rule.

The law’s examples include risk assessments, reports, data, protocols, technology specifications, manuals, instructions, investigative materials, crossmatches, mental impressions and communications that may reveal how a governmental body prevents, investigates or evaluates fraud. The provision is tied to fraud-detection and deterrence measures; it does not declare every government financial record confidential simply because government spending is involved. New Section 552.164(a).

The confidentiality protection does not affect sharing authorized by other law for law-enforcement and fraud-detection or prevention purposes. That preserves lawful sharing; it does not itself authorize every disclosure to another organization or make the information publicly available. Section 552.164(b).

What changed along the way?

The Senate committee substitute added the express protection for information sharing authorized by other law. The introduced bill contained the confidentiality rule without that subsection. The substitute, engrossed, House committee and enrolled operative texts then match; no floor amendments are listed. Introduced bill; Senate substitute; All versions; Amendment index.

The act adds a new exception within the existing public-information system. It does not itself repeal the process for seeking an attorney general decision when that process applies to withholding requested information. Whether a particular record falls within the new provision still depends on the record and the law. Narrow statutory addition; Existing attorney-general decision process.

For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.

Official bill versions

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?

Protecting detection methods can make it harder to learn how to evade fraud controls. The tradeoff is less public access to information about those controls, including for journalists and people scrutinizing agency decisions. The official open-government impact statements expressly identify a restriction on open-records law and access to government information. Neither the bill nor those statements measures fraud prevented or the extent of reduced oversight. Confidentiality scope; Substitute open-government impact.

The February 26 introduced and March 4 substitute fiscal notes anticipate no significant state or local fiscal impact and assume associated costs and savings would be insignificant. They give no dollar estimate for avoided fraud losses. Introduced fiscal note; Substitute fiscal note.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.