By:  Rosson                                            S.B. No. 162
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to a requirement that an operator service make a live
    1-2  operator available.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 18A, Public Utility Regulatory Act
    1-5  (Article 1446c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
    1-6  amending Subsection (h) and adding Subsection (i) to read follows:
    1-7        (h)  Except as provided by Subsection (i) of this section,
    1-8  this <This> section applies only to a telecommunications utility
    1-9  that is not a dominant carrier.  The commission is granted all
   1-10  necessary power and authority under this Act to promulgate rules
   1-11  and establish procedures for the purposes of enforcing and
   1-12  implementing this section.
   1-13        (i)  Each dominant or nondominant telecommunications utility
   1-14  that provides operator service shall ensure that a caller may
   1-15  access a live operator at the beginning of a call through a method
   1-16  designed to be easily and clearly understandable and accessible to
   1-17  a caller.  A telecommunications utility shall submit to the
   1-18  commission the method by which the utility will provide access to a
   1-19  live operator for review.  This subsection applies regardless of
   1-20  the method by which the telecommunications utility provides the
   1-21  operator service.  The requirements of this subsection shall not
   1-22  apply to telephones located in prison or jail facilities.
   1-23        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    2-1        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-2  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-3  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-4  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-5  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.