Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 365 amends the Government Code to renew the Department of Information Resources with a sunset date of 2009. The act revises the membership of the department's governing board, providing for six voting members appointed by the governor and six nonvoting, ex officio members from specified state agencies. It sets requirements for the training and continuing education of information resources managers at state agencies and requires that they be part of an agency's executive management and report directly to the agency's executive director or deputy executive director. The act removes statutory deadlines relating to the preparation of an agency's strategic plan for information resources. Instead, it gives the department discretion to set key planning dates by rule, so as to align information resources planning with the overall strategic planning cycle that agencies follow. The act requires certain agencies to establish Internet electronic mail addresses and authorizes them to publish those addresses and to use electronic mail to communicate with the public.

            Each agency must develop and implement internal quality assurance procedures to ensure that information resources projects are completed on a timely basis and function effectively. The act directs the department to develop model guidelines for quality assurance procedures and to aid agencies in the implementation of those procedures. The department is charged also to assist the Legislative Budget Board in reviewing cost-benefit determinations made by agencies that install major information resources projects. Cost-benefit analyses must address the comparative benefits of internal versus contractual design and the comparative costs of leasing and purchasing the information technology. The act consolidates, recodifies, and revises statutes relating to the telecommunications planning group, consisting of the department director, the executive director of the General Services Commission, and the comptroller. The panel is bestowed that name statutorily for the first time and is charged to collect and manage configuration information relating to state-government telecommunications networks, in addition to existing planning and policymaking duties. The act requires a biennial report by the group to the legislature and provides for advisory input to the group from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board, the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, The University of Texas System, and The Texas A&M University System.