By Holzheauser                                        H.B. No. 1815
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to payment of vendors by the state.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 601(f), Section 7, Subsection (a) is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 7.  (a)  This Act does not apply to payments made by a
    1-7  governmental entity or a vendor in the event:
    1-8        (1)  <the terms of a contract specify other times and methods
    1-9  of payment or methods of resolving disputes or interest owed on
   1-10  delinquent payments; or (2)> there is a bona fide dispute between a
   1-11  vendor and a subcontractor or between a subcontractor or between a
   1-12  subcontractor and its supplier concerning the supplies, materials,
   1-13  or equipment delivered or the services performed which causes the
   1-14  payment to be late; or
   1-15        (2) <(3)>  the terms of a federal contract, grant,
   1-16  regulation, or statute prevent the governmental entity from making
   1-17  a timely payment with federal funds; or
   1-18        (3) <(4)>  the invoice is not mailed to the addressee in
   1-19  strict accordance with instructions, if any, on the purchase order
   1-20  covering said payment.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  This Act applies only to payment due after the
   1-22  effective date of this Act.
   1-23        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    2-1        SECTION 4.  EMERGENCY CLAUSE.  The importance of this
    2-2  legislation and the crowded condition of the calendars in both
    2-3  houses create an emergency and an imperative public necessity that
    2-4  the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-5  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.