By:  Sibley                                           S.B. No. 1914

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the provision of telecommunications services by the

 1-2     General Services Commission.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 2157.001, Government Code, is amended to

 1-5     read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 2157.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:

 1-7                 (1)  "Automated information system" includes:

 1-8                       (A)  the computers on which the information

 1-9     system is automated;

1-10                       (B)  a service related to the automation of the

1-11     system, including computer software, or the computers; [and]

1-12                       (C)  a telecommunications apparatus or device

1-13     that serves as a component of a voice, data, or video

1-14     communications network for transmitting, switching, routing,

1-15     multiplexing, modulating, amplifying, or receiving signals on the

1-16     network; and

1-17                       (D)  for the General Services Commission, as

1-18     telecommunications provider for the State, the term includes any

1-19     service provided by a telecommunications provider, as that term is

1-20     defined in the Public Utility Regulatory Act of 1995 (Article

1-21     1446c-0, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).

1-22                 (2)  "Qualified information systems vendor" means a

1-23     manufacturer or reseller of an automated information system who is

 2-1     authorized by the commission to publish a catalogue of products and

 2-2     services that may be directly purchased by a state agency.

 2-3           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 2-4           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.