By:  Moncrief, West                            S.B. No. 67

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to purchasing procedures used by the institutional

 1-2     division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 496.051, Government Code, is amended to

 1-5     read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 496.051.  PURCHASING PROCEDURES.  [(a)]  The department

 1-7     shall comply with any special purchasing procedures requiring

 1-8     competitive review under the State Purchasing and General Services

 1-9     Act (Subtitle D, Title 10) [(Article 601b, Vernon's Texas Civil

1-10     Statutes)].

1-11           [(b)  The board may authorize the executive director to adopt

1-12     policies allowing the institutional division to purchase directly

1-13     or at public auction livestock, agricultural commodities,

1-14     agricultural or industrial equipment, supplies, and raw materials

1-15     for agricultural or industrial production, breeding, consumption,

1-16     or resale, if the division determines that the purchase is

1-17     economically feasible and advantageous to the division.  The State

1-18     Purchasing and General Services Act (Article 601b, Vernon's Texas

1-19     Civil Statutes) does not apply to purchases made under this

1-20     subsection.  The institutional division shall notify the General

1-21     Services Commission as soon as practicable of a purchase made under

1-22     this subsection and the purchase price.]

1-23           [(c)  To carry out Subsection (b), the industry and

 2-1     agricultural fund is created.  The fund must be deposited in a

 2-2     local bank.  The fund may be expended only for purchases under

 2-3     Subsection (b).  Unexpended balances of the fund must be carried

 2-4     forward from fiscal year to fiscal year.]

 2-5           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-10     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-11     passage, and it is so enacted.