By Carona                                              S.B. No. 513
         76R6393 JRD-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to state contracting with a prospective vendor who
 1-3     restricts the ability of any of its customers to allow the
 1-4     recycling or remanufacturing of the vendor's product.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 2155, Government Code, is
 1-7     amended by adding Section 2155.006 to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 2155.006.  RESTRICTIONS ON REMANUFACTURING OR RECYCLING.
 1-9     (a)  A vendor offering to sell a product to the state shall certify
1-10     on each bid, proposal, or other applicable expression of interest
1-11     submitted that neither the vendor, the person represented by the
1-12     vendor, nor a person acting for the represented person, as a
1-13     current business practice, restricts by contract or by technical
1-14     means the ability of any person to recycle or remanufacture or to
1-15     allow the recycling or remanufacturing of the product.
1-16           (b)  A state agency may not acquire the product from the
1-17     vendor if the vendor does not make the certification required by
1-18     this section.
1-19           (c)  The attorney general shall prepare the certification
1-20     statement. The statement shall be made a part of the form for a
1-21     bid, proposal, or other applicable expression of interest to
1-22     contract with a state agency.
1-23           (d)  This section applies to the acquisition of any product
1-24     by a state agency, including an acquisition that is otherwise
 2-1     excepted from the requirements of all or part of this chapter under
 2-2     Subchapter C or other law.
 2-3           SECTION 2.  Section 2155.006, Government Code, as added by
 2-4     this Act, applies only to the acquisition of a product by a state
 2-5     agency for which the agency first disseminates requests for bids,
 2-6     proposals, or other applicable expressions of interest on or after
 2-7     the effective date of this Act.
 2-8           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-9           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-10     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-11     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-12     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-13     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.