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House approves Senate bill 331 to add confidentiality protections for demographic records amid protests from press and researchers
Summary
The House approved Senate Bill 331 after floor debate; opponents — including journalists, researchers and civil-society groups — warned the measure would restrict access to birth, death and marriage records that have been used for public-health and investigative reporting.
The House of Representatives approved Senate Bill 331 on Aug. 21, 2025, a measure that adds confidentiality rules to certain records held by Puerto Rico's Demographic Registry, voting 30 in favor and 7 opposed, the clerk announced after the final tally.
Opponents on the floor and in earlier public hearings said the bill would substantially restrict access to data used in public-health research, investigative reporting and oversight of government services. Representative Héctor Ferrer Santiago read a multi-page report from public hearings convened by the Colegio de Abogados and the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, summarizing testimony from civil-society groups,…
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