By:  Denny, et al.                                                H.B. No. 443



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to providing notice concerning certain school district 
purchases.  
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 44.031(g), Education Code, is amended to 
read as follows:
	(g)  Notice of the time by which [when] and place where the 
bids or proposals, or the responses to a request for 
qualifications, will be received and opened shall be posted on the 
electronic procurement marketplace established under Subchapter B, 
Chapter 2177, Government Code, for a period of at least 14 days 
before the deadline for receiving bids, proposals, or responses to 
a request for qualifications or published in the county in which the 
district's central administrative office is located, once a week 
for at least two weeks before the deadline for receiving bids, 
proposals, or responses to a request for qualifications.  If the 
notice is to be provided by publication and there is not a newspaper 
in the county in which the district's central administrative office 
is located [that county], the advertising shall be published in a 
newspaper in the county nearest the county seat of the county in 
which the district's central administrative office is located.  In 
a two-step procurement process, the time by which and place where 
the second-step bids, proposals, or responses will be received are 
not required to be posted or published separately.  A district that 
publishes notice in a newspaper shall include the Internet website 
addresses of the district and of the electronic procurement 
marketplace in the published notice.
	SECTION 2.  Section 44.031, Education Code, is amended by 
adding Subsection (g-1) to read as follows:
	(g-1) Notwithstanding Subsection (g), if a school district 
publishes notice in a newspaper under Subsection (g) and the 
district determines that a sufficient number of bids, proposals, or 
responses have been received, the district is not required to 
continue to publish notice in the newspaper after the first week of 
publication.  The board of trustees of the district shall adopt 
guidelines to assist the district in determining whether the 
district has received a sufficient number of bids, proposals, or 
responses.
	SECTION 3.  Section 2177.051(e), Government Code, is amended 
to read as follows:
	(e)  The commission may make state procurement information 
available to political subdivisions through the electronic 
procurement marketplace on a fee-for-service basis.  The commission 
shall set the fees in an amount that recovers the state's costs in 
providing the access to a political subdivision.  The commission 
shall permit a school district, in complying with Section 
44.031(g), Education Code, to post information on the electronic 
procurement marketplace.
	SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2003.