By Conley H.B. No. 2736
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to state agency reporting of contracting with historically
1-3 underutilized businesses.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. DEFINITIONS. In this Act:
1-6 (1) "Adjusted total expenditures" means the sum total
1-7 of purchases, contracts and payments of a state agency other than
1-8 purchases, contracts, and payments excepted from the definition of
1-9 total expenditures.
1-10 (2) "Commission" means the General Services
1-11 Commission.
1-12 (3) "Comptroller" means the Comptroller of Public
1-13 Accounts.
1-14 (4) "Delegated purchases" means those purchasing
1-15 functions delegated to a state agency by the commission.
1-16 (5) "Department" means the Texas Department of
1-17 Commerce.
1-18 (6) "Historically underutilized businesses" has the
1-19 meaning assigned to that term by the general appropriations act.
1-20 (7) "State agency" means any department, commission,
1-21 board, office, institution, or other agency in the executive branch
1-22 of state government.
1-23 SECTION 2. REQUIRED REPORTS. (a) Each state agency shall
2-1 submit to the department and commission each December a report
2-2 reflecting the total number and adjusted total expenditures of
2-3 purchases, contracts and payments the agency has made with
2-4 historically underutilized businesses during the prior fiscal year.
2-5 The report shall include a separate treatment of subcontractor and
2-6 supplier contracts that the agency has made with historically
2-7 underutilized businesses. Each agency shall include with the
2-8 report a list of historically underutilized businesses with which
2-9 it has contracted or with which it has made purchases or payments
2-10 during the reporting year. Each agency participating in a
2-11 consortium formed under Sec. 3.01(a)(5), Art. 601b, Revised Civil
2-12 Statutes shall include with the report a separate treatment of the
2-13 number and adjusted total expenditures the consortium has made with
2-14 historically underutilized businesses during the prior fiscal year.
2-15 (b) The commission shall compare the historically
2-16 underutilized businesses list of each agency filed pursuant to this
2-17 section with the list of historically underutilized businesses
2-18 certified by the commission and shall categorize each agency list
2-19 by the gender and ethnicity of each historically underutilized
2-20 business according to the list of historically underutilized
2-21 businesses certified by the commission.
2-22 (c) Each state agency shall reconcile the report required by
2-23 Subsection (a) of this section with payment data developed by the
2-24 comptroller and the records of the agency. This reconciliation
2-25 shall distinguish between delegated purchases, purchases, contracts
3-1 and payments made by the agency because of its inclusion in the
3-2 state purchasing program conducted by the commission, and other
3-3 purchases made by the agency, in accordance with (a) of this
3-4 section.
3-5 (d) Reports required to be filed under this section shall
3-6 not include expenditures for payroll, employee benefits,
3-7 scholarships, utilities, right-of-way acquisition, real estate
3-8 leases, commission open market and contract purchases, purchases
3-9 deleted from the General Services Commissions February 1993 report,
3-10 and purchases described in Sec. 3.01(a)(1), (2), (3), and (4), Art.
3-11 601b, Revised Civil Statutes.
3-12 SECTION 3. AGENCY RECORDS. (a) Each state agency shall
3-13 maintain continuously the following:
3-14 (1) a list of the number and value of delegated
3-15 purchases made by the state agency during the current fiscal year,
3-16 with historically underutilized businesses;
3-17 (2) the percentage relationship that the total number
3-18 of historically underutilized business purchases, contracts and
3-19 subcontracts made by the state agency during the current fiscal
3-20 year bears to the total number of delegated purchases made by the
3-21 state agency;
3-22 (3) the total expenditures of the state agency with
3-23 historically underutilized businesses; and
3-24 (4) a list of adjusted total expenditures made by each
3-25 division of the agency with historically underutilized businesses
4-1 during the current fiscal year.
4-2 (b) The commission shall classify these and any other
4-3 expenditures not included in the above reports in a manner that
4-4 shows the relative level of opportunity for historically
4-5 underutilized business vendors offered by the sector or class of
4-6 commission expenditures.
4-7 (c) The commission is to seek the advice of the Governor,
4-8 legislature and other state agencies in prioritizing business
4-9 sectors and expenditure codes to pursue identification and
4-10 development of future historically underutilized businesses
4-11 business opportunities.
4-12 SECTION 4. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY. The commission and
4-13 department may adopt rules to implement this Act.
4-14 SECTION 5. EMERGENCY. The importance of this legislation
4-15 and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-16 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-17 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
4-18 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
4-19 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
4-20 passage, and it is so enacted.