By Turner of Harris                                   H.B. No. 2682
       74R5455 CBH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the prevention of redlining by telecommunications
    1-3  utilities.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article VI, Public Utility Regulatory Act
    1-6  (Article 1446c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
    1-7  adding Section 45A to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 45A.  (a)  A telecommunications utility may not refuse
    1-9  to provide access to telecommunications service with the intent or
   1-10  effect of discriminating on the basis of race, national origin,
   1-11  income, or residence in a rural area.
   1-12        (b)  In each local service area, a telecommunications utility
   1-13  shall ensure that, at a minimum, the ratio that the number of
   1-14  members of a protected class in that area to whom the utility has
   1-15  offered service bears to the total number of persons in that area
   1-16  to whom the utility has offered service is at least equal to the
   1-17  ratio that the number of members of that protected class in that
   1-18  area bears to the total number of residents in that area.
   1-19        (c)  Each political subdivision that regulates or grants a
   1-20  franchise to a telecommunications utility shall require as a
   1-21  condition of regulation or of the granting or renewal of a
   1-22  franchise that the utility submit to the political subdivision and
   1-23  the commission a plan to comply with this section and periodic
   1-24  compliance reports.  Each plan and report must include any
    2-1  necessary tract-level census information in the form prescribed by
    2-2  the commission.
    2-3        (d)  The commission shall prescribe rules to enforce this
    2-4  section.  The rules shall prescribe a procedure for:
    2-5              (1)  the public to comment or complain about a
    2-6  telecommunications utility's compliance or noncompliance with this
    2-7  section; and
    2-8              (2)  the issuance of an annual report as to each
    2-9  telecommunications utility's compliance with this section.
   2-10        (e)  In this section, "protected class" means a group listed
   2-11  in Subsection (a) of this section.
   2-12        SECTION 2.  Not later than September 1, 1996, the Public
   2-13  Utility Commission of Texas shall adopt the rules prescribed by
   2-14  Section 45A, Public Utility Regulatory Act (Article 1446c, Vernon's
   2-15  Texas Civil Statutes), as added by this Act.  A telecommunications
   2-16  utility is not required to file a plan or report as required by
   2-17  Section 45A until the commission adopts the rules.
   2-18        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-23  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-24  passage, and it is so enacted.