By Bosse                                              H.B. No. 2149
         76R8144 DRH-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the award of state highway improvement contracts.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 223, Transportation Code,
 1-5     is amended by adding Section 223.0041 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 223.0041.  AWARD OF CONTRACT.  (a)  Except as provided
 1-7     by Section 223.005, all bids received and not rejected by the
 1-8     department shall be tabulated and forwarded to the commission.
 1-9           (b)  The commission may accept or reject the bids.  If the
1-10     bids are accepted, the commission shall award the contract to the
1-11     lowest bidder, subject to Section 223.045.
1-12           SECTION 2.  Sections 223.005(b)-(d), Transportation Code, are
1-13     amended to read as follows:
1-14           (b)  [Except as provided by Subsection (d), all bids received
1-15     under this section and not rejected by the department shall be
1-16     tabulated and forwarded to the commission and may be accepted or
1-17     rejected by the commission.]
1-18           [(c)  If the bids are accepted, the commission shall award
1-19     the contract to the lowest bidder, subject to Section 223.045.]
1-20           [(d)]  The commission may delegate to the director or the
1-21     director's designee the right to:
1-22                 (1)  accept or reject bids received, subject to Section
1-23     223.045; and
1-24                 (2)  award a contract to the lowest bidder.
 2-1           SECTION 3.  Section 223.013(c), Transportation Code, is
 2-2     amended to read as follows:
 2-3           (c)  A provision of this subchapter that requires [That part
 2-4     of Section 223.004(a) requiring] a bid to be opened at a public
 2-5     hearing [of the commission] does not apply to an electronically
 2-6     submitted bid.  A copy of each electronically submitted bid shall
 2-7     be publicly posted within 48 hours after bids are opened.
 2-8           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-13     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-14     passage, and it is so enacted.