H.B. No. 795
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the contracting authority and procedures of certain
    1-3  hospital districts.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 281.051, Health and Safety Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Subsection (d) as follows:
    1-7        (d)  The board shall encourage and promote participation by
    1-8  all sectors of the business community, including small businesses
    1-9  and businesses owned by members of a minority group or by women, in
   1-10  the process by which the district enters into contracts.  The board
   1-11  shall develop a plan for the district to identify and remove
   1-12  barriers that do not have a definite or objective relationship to
   1-13  quality or competence and that unfairly discriminate against small
   1-14  businesses and businesses owned by members of a minority or by
   1-15  women.  These barriers may include contracting procedures and
   1-16  contract specifications or conditions.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-22  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-23  passage, and it is so enacted.