1-1     By:  Bosse (Senate Sponsor - Brown)                   H.B. No. 2159
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 9, 1999;
 1-3     April 12, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on State
 1-4     Affairs; May 13, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 13, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 2159                   By:  Lucio
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to the retainage of payments under certain contracts
1-11     entered into by the Texas Department of Transportation for
1-12     improvements to state highways.
1-13           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-14           SECTION 1.  Section 223.010, Transportation Code, is amended
1-15     by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (h) to read as
1-16     follows:
1-17           (a)  Five percent of the contract price shall be retained
1-18     until the entire improvement has been completed and accepted,
1-19     except as provided by Subsection (h).
1-20           (h)  This subsection applies only to a contract that provides
1-21     for a separate vegetative establishment, maintenance, or
1-22     performance period following construction of an improvement.
1-23     Before the entire improvement is accepted, the department may
1-24     release a portion of the amount retained under Subsection (a) at
1-25     the time construction of the improvement is completed but no more
1-26     than the amount sufficient to ensure compliance with the contract.
1-27           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-28     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-29     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-30     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-31     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-32     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-33     passage, and it is so enacted.
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