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.
2-41 * * * * *