1-1     By:  Bosse (Senate Sponsor - Bernsen)                 H.B. No. 2149
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 5, 1999;
 1-3     May 6, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on State
 1-4     Affairs; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the award of state highway improvement contracts.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 223, Transportation Code,
1-11     is amended by adding Section 223.0041 to read as follows:
1-12           Sec. 223.0041.  AWARD OF CONTRACT.  (a)  Except as provided
1-13     by Section 223.005, all bids received and not rejected by the
1-14     department shall be tabulated and forwarded to the commission.
1-15           (b)  The commission may accept or reject the bids.  If the
1-16     bids are accepted, the commission shall award the contract to the
1-17     lowest bidder, subject to Section 223.045.
1-18           SECTION 2.  Sections 223.005(b)-(d), Transportation Code, are
1-19     amended to read as follows:
1-20           (b)  [Except as provided by Subsection (d), all bids received
1-21     under this section and not rejected by the department shall be
1-22     tabulated and forwarded to the commission and may be accepted or
1-23     rejected by the commission.]
1-24           [(c)  If the bids are accepted, the commission shall award
1-25     the contract to the lowest bidder, subject to Section 223.045.]
1-26           [(d)]  The commission may delegate to the director or the
1-27     director's designee the right to:
1-28                 (1)  accept or reject bids received, subject to Section
1-29     223.045; and
1-30                 (2)  award a contract to the lowest bidder.
1-31           SECTION 3.  Section 223.013(c), Transportation Code, is
1-32     amended to read as follows:
1-33           (c)  A provision of this subchapter that requires [That part
1-34     of Section 223.004(a) requiring] a bid to be opened at a public
1-35     hearing [of the commission] does not apply to an electronically
1-36     submitted bid.  A copy of each electronically submitted bid shall
1-37     be publicly posted within 48 hours after bids are opened.
1-38           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-39     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-40     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-41     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-42     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-43     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-44     passage, and it is so enacted.
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