1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to disconnection of a telephone call made by an automated
 1-3     dial announcing device.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 37.02(a), Business & Commerce Code, is
 1-6     amended to read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  A telephone solicitor may not make a consumer telephone
 1-8     call to a consumer unless:
 1-9                 (1)  the telephone solicitor identifies himself or
1-10     herself by name and identifies the business on whose behalf the
1-11     telephone solicitor is calling and the purpose of the call
1-12     immediately after making contact with the consumer to whom the call
1-13     is made;
1-14                 (2)  the telephone solicitor makes the call after 12
1-15     noon or before 9 p.m.  on a Sunday or after 9 a.m. and before 9
1-16     p.m. on a weekday or a Saturday; and
1-17                 (3)  for those calls in which an automated dial
1-18     announcing device is used, [where technically possible,] the device
1-19     must disconnect the consumer's telephone line within the period
1-20     provided by Section 55.126, Utilities Code,  [30 seconds] after
1-21     termination of the call by either the telephone solicitor or the
1-22     consumer.
1-23           SECTION 2.  Section 55.126, Utilities Code, is amended to
1-24     read as follows:
 2-1           Sec. 55.126.  DEVICE DISCONNECTION.  A person may not use an
 2-2     automated dial announcing device to make a telephone call in which
 2-3     the device plays a recorded message when the connection is
 2-4     completed unless the device disconnects from the called person's
 2-5     line not later than five [30] seconds after the call is terminated
 2-6     by either party.  If the device cannot disconnect during that
 2-7     period, a live operator must  introduce the call and receive the
 2-8     called person's oral consent before beginning a prerecorded or
 2-9     synthesized voice message.
2-10           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-11           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
         _______________________________     _______________________________
             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 450 was passed by the House on May 3,
         1999, by a non-record vote.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Chief Clerk of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 450 was passed by the Senate on May
         26, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 30, Nays 0.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Secretary of the Senate
         APPROVED:  _____________________
                            Date
                    _____________________
                          Governor