1-1     By:  Sibley                                           S.B. No. 1914

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 27, 1997; April 2, 1997, read

 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;

 1-4     April 24, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 13,

 1-5     Nays 0; April 24, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the provision of telecommunications services by the

 1-9     General Services Commission.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 2157.001, Government Code, is amended to

1-12     read as follows:

1-13           Sec. 2157.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:

1-14                 (1)  "Automated information system" includes:

1-15                       (A)  the computers on which the information

1-16     system is automated;

1-17                       (B)  a service related to the automation of the

1-18     system, including computer software, or the computers; [and]

1-19                       (C)  a telecommunications apparatus or device

1-20     that serves as a component of a voice, data, or video

1-21     communications network for transmitting, switching, routing,

1-22     multiplexing, modulating, amplifying, or receiving signals on the

1-23     network; and

1-24                       (D)  for the General Services Commission, as

1-25     telecommunications provider for the State, the term includes any

1-26     service provided by a telecommunications provider, as that term is

1-27     defined in the Public Utility Regulatory Act of 1995 (Article

1-28     1446c-0, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).

1-29                 (2)  "Qualified information systems vendor" means a

1-30     manufacturer or reseller of an automated information system who is

1-31     authorized by the commission to publish a catalogue of products and

1-32     services that may be directly purchased by a state agency.

1-33           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-34           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-35     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-36     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-37     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-38     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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