By Bailey                                             H.B. No. 3721
         76R1505 DWS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the powers and duties of the Office of Public Utility
 1-3     Counsel to represent certain persons in certain proceedings.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 13.003(a), Utilities Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  The office:
 1-8                 (1)  shall assess the effect of utility rate changes
 1-9     and other regulatory actions on residential consumers in this
1-10     state;
1-11                 (2)  shall advocate in the office's own name a position
1-12     determined by the counsellor to be most advantageous to a
1-13     substantial number of residential consumers;
1-14                 (3)  may appear or intervene, as a party or otherwise,
1-15     as a matter of right on behalf of:
1-16                       (A)  residential consumers, as a class, in any
1-17     proceeding before the commission, including an alternative dispute
1-18     resolution proceeding; and
1-19                       (B)  small commercial consumers, as a class, in
1-20     any proceeding in which the counsellor determines that small
1-21     commercial consumers are in need of representation, including an
1-22     alternative dispute resolution proceeding;
1-23                 (4)  may initiate or intervene as a matter of right or
1-24     otherwise appear in a judicial proceeding:
 2-1                       (A)  that involves an action taken by an
 2-2     administrative agency in a proceeding, including an alternative
 2-3     dispute resolution proceeding, in which the counsellor is
 2-4     authorized to appear; or
 2-5                       (B)  in which the counsellor determines that
 2-6     residential consumers or small business consumers are in need of
 2-7     representation;
 2-8                 (5)  is entitled to the same access as a party, other
 2-9     than commission staff, to records gathered by the commission under
2-10     Section 14.204;
2-11                 (6)  is entitled to discovery of any nonprivileged
2-12     matter that is relevant to the subject matter of a proceeding or
2-13     petition before the commission;
2-14                 (7)  may represent an individual residential or small
2-15     commercial consumer with respect to the consumer's disputed
2-16     complaint concerning utility services that is unresolved before the
2-17     commission; and
2-18                 (8)  may recommend legislation to the legislature that
2-19     the office determines would positively affect the interests of
2-20     residential and small commercial consumers.
2-21           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-25     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-26     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-27     passage, and it is so enacted.