By Wentworth                                    S.B. No. 1135

      75R4050 JJT-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to refunding certain charges made by certain utilities.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subtitle K, Title I, Public Utility Regulatory

 1-5     Act of 1995 (Article 1446c-0, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 1.408 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 1.408.  REFUNDS FOR OVER-BILLING.  The commission by

 1-8     rule shall require a public utility that charges a customer more

 1-9     than the lawful rate for the service being purchased by the

1-10     customer to refund the overcharged amount by an adjustment made for

1-11     the entire period of the overcharges.

1-12           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-18     passage, and it is so enacted.