By Greenberg H.B. No. 1805
75R3878 JRD-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the methods used by state government to purchase
1-3 information resources technologies.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Subchapter C, Chapter 2054, Government Code, is
1-6 amended by adding Section 2054.060 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 2054.060. TRAINING IN CONTRACT NEGOTIATION. (a) The
1-8 department with the cooperation of the comptroller, the General
1-9 Services Commission, and other appropriate state agencies shall
1-10 develop and implement a program to train state agency personnel in
1-11 effectively negotiating contracts for the purchase of information
1-12 resources technologies.
1-13 (b) The department shall make the training available to
1-14 state agency personnel who are directly or indirectly involved in
1-15 contract negotiations, such as senior or operational management,
1-16 purchasers, users of the purchased technologies, and personnel with
1-17 relevant technical, legal, or financial knowledge.
1-18 (c) The department shall include in the training:
1-19 (1) information on developing a structured purchasing
1-20 method that meets an agency's needs;
1-21 (2) information drawn from the state's previous
1-22 procurement experience about what is or is not advantageous for the
1-23 state;
1-24 (3) the perspective of state agencies with oversight
2-1 responsibilities related to the state's procurement of information
2-2 resources technologies; and
2-3 (4) other information that the department considers to
2-4 be useful.
2-5 (d) The department may use its own staff or contract with
2-6 private entities or other state agencies to conduct the training.
2-7 SECTION 2. Section 2157.062(a), Government Code, is amended
2-8 to read as follows:
2-9 (a) To sell or lease an automated information system under
2-10 this subchapter to a state agency, a vendor must apply to the
2-11 commission for designation as a qualified information systems
2-12 vendor. The commission shall prescribe the application process.
2-13 The commission may allow or require a vendor to apply on-line.
2-14 SECTION 3. Section 2157.066, Government Code, is amended to
2-15 read as follows:
2-16 Sec. 2157.066. CATALOGUE REQUIREMENTS. (a) A vendor
2-17 designated by the commission as a qualified information systems
2-18 vendor shall publish and maintain a catalogue described by Section
2-19 2157.062(b)(1) in the manner required by the commission.
2-20 (b) The vendor shall revise the catalogue as necessary to
2-21 include price changes or the availability of goods or services and
2-22 shall make the revisions available in the manner required by
2-23 [forward to] the commission [and all eligible purchasers a copy of
2-24 each revised catalogue].
2-25 (c) The commission shall make the catalogue information
2-26 available on the world wide web, or on a suitable successor to the
2-27 world wide web if the technological developments involving the
3-1 Internet make it advisable to do so. The commission shall require
3-2 each qualified information systems vendor to maintain a home page
3-3 on the web, or an analogous feature on a suitable successor,
3-4 through which the vendor makes the vendor's current catalogue
3-5 information publicly available. The commission shall maintain the
3-6 necessary databases and indexing functions through which a state
3-7 agency or the public may efficiently search for and find each
3-8 qualified information systems vendor's catalogue information on the
3-9 web or on a suitable successor.
3-10 (d) The commission shall phase in the requirement that all
3-11 catalogue information must be available on the world wide web and
3-12 shall allow or require qualified information systems vendors to
3-13 publish catalogues on paper until the commission determines that
3-14 the automated information capabilities of the state, of political
3-15 subdivisions, and of vendors are sufficient for the commission to
3-16 require that all catalogues be made available electronically. The
3-17 commission shall prescribe its requirements and the timing of its
3-18 requirements under this section by rule.
3-19 (e) In this section, "Internet" means the largest
3-20 nonproprietary nonprofit cooperative public computer network,
3-21 popularly known as the Internet.
3-22 SECTION 4. The comptroller, with the cooperation of other
3-23 appropriate state agencies, shall evaluate and determine the extent
3-24 to which it would be advantageous to the state for other goods and
3-25 services to be procured in a manner similar to the manner in which
3-26 automated information systems are procured under the catalogue
3-27 purchasing procedure of Subchapter B, Chapter 2157, Government
4-1 Code. The comptroller shall report the findings and determinations
4-2 to the general investigating committees of each house of the
4-3 legislature.
4-4 SECTION 5. The Department of Information Resources shall
4-5 consult the California Franchise Tax Board about the manner in
4-6 which the board purchases information resources technologies and
4-7 structures its contracts for the purchase of those technologies. If
4-8 the department determines that one or more of the board's practices
4-9 can and should be adapted for use by state agencies in Texas, the
4-10 department shall include information about the practices in its
4-11 training program conducted under Section 2054.060, Government Code,
4-12 as added by this Act.
4-13 SECTION 6. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
4-14 SECTION 7. The importance of this legislation and the
4-15 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.