By Seidlits                                            H.B. No. 739
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a requirement that an operator service make a live
    1-3  operator available.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 18A, Public Utility Regulatory Act
    1-6  (Article 1446c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
    1-7  amending Subsection (h) and adding Subsection (i) to read as
    1-8  follows:
    1-9        (h)  Except as provided by Subsection (i) of this section,
   1-10  this <This> section applies only to a telecommunications utility
   1-11  that is not a dominant carrier.  The commission is granted all
   1-12  necessary power and authority under this Act to promulgate rules
   1-13  and establish procedures for the purposes of enforcing and
   1-14  implementing this section.
   1-15        (i)  Each dominant or nondominant telecommunications utility
   1-16  that provides operator service shall ensure that a caller may
   1-17  access a live operator at the beginning of a call through a method
   1-18  designed to be easily and clearly understandable and accessible to
   1-19  a caller.  A telecommunications utility shall submit to the
   1-20  commission the method by which the utility will provide access to a
   1-21  live operator for review.  This subsection applies regardless of
   1-22  the method by which the telecommunications utility provides the
   1-23  operator service.  The requirements of this subsection shall not
    2-1  apply to telephones located in prison or jail facilities.
    2-2        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    2-3        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.