1-1     By:  Shapleigh                                        S.B. No. 1384
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 11, 1999; March 15, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Economic Development;
 1-4     April 23, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; April 23, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1384                  By:  Sibley
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to the powers and duties of the Office of Public Utility
1-11     Counsel to represent certain persons in certain proceedings.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 13.003, Utilities Code,
1-14     is amended to read as follows:
1-15           (a)  The office:
1-16                 (1)  shall assess the effect of utility rate changes
1-17     and other regulatory actions on residential consumers in this
1-18     state;
1-19                 (2)  shall advocate in the office's own name a position
1-20     determined by the counsellor to be most advantageous to a
1-21     substantial number of residential consumers;
1-22                 (3)  may appear or intervene, as a party or otherwise,
1-23     as a matter of right on behalf of:
1-24                       (A)  residential consumers, as a class, in any
1-25     proceeding before the commission, including an alternative dispute
1-26     resolution proceeding to the extent consistent with federal law;
1-27     and
1-28                       (B)  small commercial consumers, as a class, in
1-29     any proceeding in which the counsellor determines that small
1-30     commercial consumers are in need of representation, including an
1-31     alternative dispute resolution proceeding to the extent consistent
1-32     with federal law;
1-33                 (4)  may initiate or intervene as a matter of right or
1-34     otherwise appear in a judicial proceeding that involves an action
1-35     taken by an administrative agency in a proceeding, including an
1-36     alternative dispute resolution proceeding to the extent consistent
1-37     with federal law, in which the counsellor is authorized to appear;
1-38           (5)  may intervene as a matter of right or otherwise appear
1-39     in a judicial proceeding in which the counsellor determines that
1-40     residential consumers or small commercial consumers are in need of
1-41     representation;
1-42                 (6)  is entitled to the same access as a party, other
1-43     than commission staff, to records gathered by the commission under
1-44     Section 14.204;
1-45                 (7) [(6)]  is entitled to discovery of any
1-46     nonprivileged matter that is relevant to the subject matter of a
1-47     proceeding or petition before the commission;
1-48                 (8) [(7)]  may represent an individual residential or
1-49     small commercial consumer with respect to the consumer's disputed
1-50     complaint concerning utility services that is unresolved before the
1-51     commission; and
1-52                 (9) [(8)]  may recommend legislation to the legislature
1-53     that the office determines would positively affect the interests of
1-54     residential and small commercial consumers.
1-55           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-56     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-57     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-58     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-59     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-60     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-61     passage, and it is so enacted.
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