By Homer                                              H.B. No. 2749
         76R7768 ESH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to disclosures in connection with telephone advertising or
 1-3     polling in connection with political campaigns; providing a civil
 1-4     penalty.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Chapter 255, Election Code, is amended by adding
 1-7     Section 255.009 to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 255.009.  REQUIRED DISCLOSURE ON TELEPHONE ADVERTISING
 1-9     OR POLLS.  (a)  A person who conducts a telephone advertising
1-10     campaign or poll in connection with a campaign for public office or
1-11     on a measure shall, at the beginning or end of each telephone
1-12     conversation:
1-13                 (1)  state the person's full name;
1-14                 (2)  identify the person conducting the telephone
1-15     campaign or poll and, if that person is not a candidate or
1-16     political committee, identify the candidate or political committee
1-17     on whose behalf the person is conducting the telephone campaign or
1-18     poll; and
1-19                 (3)  state the location from which the person is
1-20     calling.
1-21           (b)  This section applies only to a telephone advertising
1-22     campaign or poll conducted by a person, including a news
1-23     organization, that is:
1-24                 (1)  affiliated or aligned with a candidate, political
 2-1     committee, political party, or campaign consultant; or
 2-2                 (2)  compensated by a candidate, political committee,
 2-3     political party, or campaign consultant for conducting the
 2-4     advertising  campaign or poll.
 2-5           (c)  A person who violates this section is liable for a civil
 2-6     penalty not to exceed $5,000.  Each conversation in which a person
 2-7     fails  to state the information required under Subsection (a)
 2-8     constitutes a separate violation.
 2-9           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-10           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-11     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-12     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-13     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-14     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.