By: Blanco  S.B. No. 538
         (In the Senate - Filed February 1, 2021; March 11, 2021,
  read first time and referred to Committee on Finance;
  April 8, 2021, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 15,
  Nays 0; April 8, 2021, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to information technology purchased through the
  Department of Information Resources.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Sections 2157.068(a) and (e-3), Government Code,
  are amended to read as follows:
         (a)  In this section, "commodity items" means commercial
  software, hardware, or technology services, other than
  telecommunications services, that are generally available to
  businesses or the public and for which the department determines
  that a reasonable demand exists from [in] two or more customers,
  including state agencies and political subdivisions of this state,
  entities described by Subsection (j), and governmental entities of
  another state, that purchase the items through the department. The
  term includes seat management, through which a customer [state
  agency] transfers its personal computer equipment and service
  responsibilities to a private vendor to manage the personal
  computing needs for each desktop of the customer [in the state
  agency], including all necessary hardware, software, and support
  services.
         (e-3)  The procedural requirements of Subsection (e-1) and
  the limitation prescribed by Subsection (e-2) do not apply to a
  state agency's purchase of commodity items under a department
  contract for the bulk purchase of commodity items intended for use
  by more than one customer [state agency].
         SECTION 2.  Section 2157.182, Government Code, is amended to
  read as follows:
         Sec. 2157.182.  VALIDITY OF PREAPPROVED TERMS AND
  CONDITIONS; RENEGOTIATION. (a) Preapproved terms and conditions
  to which a vendor, the comptroller, and the department agree are
  valid for the duration of the initial contract [two years after the
  date of the agreement] and must include a provision authorizing the
  department to renegotiate [provide that] the terms and conditions
  at any time before the contract expires [are to be renegotiated
  before the end of the two years].
         (b)  The comptroller and the department jointly shall
  establish procedures to ensure that terms and conditions may be
  [are] renegotiated before they expire in a contract between the
  vendor and a state agency.
         SECTION 3.  Section 2157.182, Government Code, as amended by
  this Act, applies only to a contract executed on or after the
  effective date of this Act.  A contract executed before the
  effective date of this Act is governed by the law as it existed
  immediately before that date, and that law is continued in effect
  for that purpose.
         SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.
 
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