Floor Packet Page No. 75
      Amend CSSB 7 by adding the following appropriately numbered
SECTION and renumbering subsequent SECTIONS accordingly:
      SECTION ____.  Section 161.121, Utilities Code, as amended by
Section 18.15, SB 1368, Acts of the 76th Legislature, Regular
Session, 1999, is amended to read as follows:
      Sec. 161.121.  GENERAL POWERS.  (a) An electric cooperative
may:
            (1)  sue and be sued in its corporate name;
            (2)  adopt and alter a corporate seal and use the seal
or a facsimile of the seal as required by law;
            (3)  acquire, own, hold, maintain, exchange, or use
property or an interest in property, including plants, buildings,
works, machinery, supplies, equipment, apparatus, and transmission
and distribution lines or systems that are necessary, convenient,
or useful;
            (4)  dispose of, mortgage, or lease as lessor any of
its property or assets;
            (5)  borrow money and otherwise contract indebtedness,
issue obligations for its indebtedness, and secure the payment of
indebtedness by mortgage, pledge, or deed of trust on any or all of
its property or revenue;
            (6)  accept gifts or grants of money, services, or
property;
            (7)  make any contracts necessary or convenient for the
exercise of the powers granted by this chapter;
            (8)  conduct its business and have offices inside or
outside this state;
            (9)  adopt and amend bylaws not inconsistent with the
articles of incorporation for the administration and regulation of
the affairs  of the cooperative; and
            (10)  perform any other acts for the cooperative or its
members or for another electric cooperative or its members, and
exercise any other power, that may be necessary, convenient, or
appropriate to accomplish the purpose for which the cooperative is
organized, including other or additional purposes that benefit
members and nonmembers, either directly or through affiliates,
described in Section A, Article 2.01, Texas Non-Profit Corporation
Act (Article 1396-2.01, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).
      (b)  Notwithstanding Subsection (a)  or any other law, an
electric cooperative, either directly or through an affiliate, may
not conduct a business venture in competition with a for-profit
enterprise.  This subsection does not apply to a business venture
directly related to a power of the cooperative that the cooperative
had under this chapter or a predecessor statute to this chapter
when the cooperative was originally organized.