HBA-TYH H.B. 3562 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3562
By: Luna, Vilma
State Affairs
4/7/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Under current law, a state officer or employee is directly responsible for
all charges on state-issued credit cards.  The officer or employee must
apply to the agency for reimbursement, at legislatively allowed rates, for
reimbursable expenses incurred in the conduct of state business.  It was
assumed that agencies would require credit card companies to mail bills to
the officer or employee's agency accounts payable section instead of to the
individual's home address.  This could reduce an officer and employee's
propensity to make unauthorized charges because the accounts payable
section would see all bills and recognize unauthorized charges.  H.B. 3562
requires the state to pay reimbursable expenses directly to the credit card
company, and provides that the officer or employee would be directly
responsible only for charges not reimbursable by the state. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking
authority is expressly delegated to the comptroller and the General
Services Commission in SECTION 1 (Section 2171.052, Government Code) of
this bill. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 2171.052, Government Code, by adding Subsections
(d) and (e), as follows: 

(d)  Provides that a contract between the General Services Commission
(commission) and a credit card company must provide that: 

(1)  amounts charged on credit cards issued under the contract to a state
officer or employee for expenses that are reimbursable to the state officer
or employee by the state will be paid directly by the state to the credit
card company; and 

(2)  the state officer or employee is directly responsible to the credit
card company only for payment of charges that are not reimbursable to the
officer or employee by the state.  
 
(e)  Authorizes the comptroller and the commission to adopt rules for the
efficient administration of the contract requirements imposed and, by rule,
to jointly adopt a memorandum of understanding for the efficient
administration of those requirements.  

SECTION 2.  Provides that the changes in law made by this Act apply only to
a contract between the General Services Commission and a credit card
company under Section 2171.052 (Contracts With Providers of Travel
Services), Government Code, that is entered into on or after the effective
date of this Act, except that if the credit card company agrees to amend an
existing contract to reflect the requirements imposed on new contracts by
this Act, the rules of the commission and the comptroller that implement
the requirements apply also to the administration of the amended contract. 

SECTION 3.  Provides that the changes in law made by this Act do not:
  
 (1)  authorize a state officer or employee to use a credit card issued to
the officer or employee through the state under Section 2171.052,
Government Code, to charge goods or services that are not connected to the
officer's or employee's performance of state business; or  
  
(2)  affect the extent, if any, to which a state officer or employee may
use the credit card to charge goods or services that are connected to the
officer's or employee's performance of state business but the expense of
which is not reimbursable to the officer or employee by the state.  

SECTION 4.  Effective date: September 1, 1999.

SECTION 5.  Emergency clause.