1-1     By:  Greenberg, Kubiak, King                          H.B. No. 1805

 1-2          (Senate Sponsor - Armbrister)

 1-3           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 27, 1997;

 1-4     April 29, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-5     International Relations, Trade, and Technology; May 8, 1997,

 1-6     reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0;

 1-7     May 8, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-9                                   AN ACT

1-10     relating to the methods used by state government to purchase

1-11     information resources technologies.

1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-13           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 2054, Government Code, is

1-14     amended by adding Section 2054.060 to read as follows:

1-15           Sec. 2054.060.  TRAINING IN CONTRACT NEGOTIATION.  (a)  The

1-16     department with the cooperation of the comptroller, the General

1-17     Services Commission, and other appropriate state agencies shall

1-18     develop and implement a program to train state agency personnel in

1-19     effectively negotiating contracts for the purchase of information

1-20     resources technologies.

1-21           (b)  The department shall make the training available to

1-22     state agency personnel who are directly or indirectly involved in

1-23     contract negotiations, such as senior or operational management,

1-24     purchasers, users of the purchased technologies, and personnel with

1-25     relevant technical, legal, or financial knowledge.

1-26           (c)  The department shall include in the training:

1-27                 (1)  information on developing a structured purchasing

1-28     method that meets an agency's needs;

1-29                 (2)  information drawn from the state's previous

1-30     procurement experience about what is or is not advantageous for the

1-31     state;

1-32                 (3)  the perspective of state agencies with oversight

1-33     responsibilities related to the state's procurement of information

1-34     resources technologies; and

1-35                 (4)  other information that the department considers to

1-36     be  useful.

1-37           (d)  The department may use its own staff or contract with

1-38     private entities or other state agencies to conduct the training.

1-39           SECTION 2.  Section 2157.062(a), Government Code, is amended

1-40     to read as follows:

1-41           (a)  To sell or lease an automated information system under

1-42     this subchapter to a state agency, a vendor must apply to the

1-43     commission for designation as a qualified information systems

1-44     vendor.  The commission shall prescribe the application process.

1-45     The commission may allow or require a vendor to apply on-line.

1-46           SECTION 3.  Section 2157.066, Government Code, is amended to

1-47     read as follows:

1-48           Sec. 2157.066.  CATALOGUE REQUIREMENTS.  (a)  A vendor

1-49     designated by the commission as a qualified information systems

1-50     vendor shall publish and maintain a catalogue described by Section

1-51     2157.062(b)(1) in the manner required by the commission.

1-52           (b)  The vendor shall revise the catalogue as necessary to

1-53     include price changes or the availability of goods or services and

1-54     shall make the revisions available in the manner required by

1-55     [forward to] the commission [and all eligible purchasers a copy of

1-56     each revised catalogue].

1-57           (c)  The commission shall make the catalogue information

1-58     available on the world wide web, or on a suitable successor to the

1-59     world wide web if the technological developments involving the

1-60     Internet make it advisable to do so. The commission shall require

1-61     each qualified information systems vendor to maintain a home page

1-62     on the web, or an analogous feature on a suitable successor,

1-63     through which the vendor makes the vendor's current catalogue

1-64     information publicly available. The commission shall maintain the

 2-1     necessary databases and indexing functions through which a state

 2-2     agency or the public may efficiently search for and find each

 2-3     qualified information systems vendor's catalogue information on the

 2-4     web or on a suitable successor.

 2-5           (d)  The commission shall phase in the requirement that all

 2-6     catalogue information must be available on the world wide web and

 2-7     shall allow or require qualified information systems vendors to

 2-8     publish catalogues on paper until the commission determines that

 2-9     the automated information capabilities of the state, of political

2-10     subdivisions, and of vendors are sufficient for the commission to

2-11     require that all catalogues be made available electronically.  The

2-12     commission shall prescribe its requirements and the timing of its

2-13     requirements under this section by rule.

2-14           (e)  In this section, "Internet" means the largest

2-15     nonproprietary nonprofit cooperative public computer network,

2-16     popularly known as the Internet.

2-17           SECTION 4.  The comptroller, with the cooperation of other

2-18     appropriate state agencies, shall evaluate and determine the extent

2-19     to which it would be advantageous to the state for other goods and

2-20     services to be procured in a manner similar to the manner in which

2-21     automated information systems are procured under the catalogue

2-22     purchasing procedure of Subchapter B, Chapter 2157, Government

2-23     Code.  The comptroller shall report the findings and determinations

2-24     to the general investigating committees of each house of the

2-25     legislature.

2-26           SECTION 5.  The Department of Information Resources shall

2-27     consult the California Franchise Tax Board about the manner in

2-28     which the board purchases information resources technologies and

2-29     structures its contracts for the purchase of those technologies. If

2-30     the department determines that one or more of the board's practices

2-31     can and should be adapted for use by state agencies in Texas, the

2-32     department shall include information about the practices in its

2-33     training program conducted under Section 2054.060, Government Code,

2-34     as added by this Act.

2-35           SECTION 6.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

2-36           SECTION 7.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-37     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-38     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-39     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-40     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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