BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 4012

By: Kitzman

State Affairs

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The state business daily is administered by the comptroller of public accounts and allows state agencies to advertise pre-solicitation notices and other information relating to the state's business activity that the comptroller considers to be of interest to the public. With technological improvements, the state business daily has gone digital and is now the electronic state business daily. Moreover, the process for advertising has become more efficient by allowing agencies to self-publish, update their advertisements in real time throughout the solicitation process, extend postings, and publish awards. H.B. 4012 seeks to modernize state law to reflect these technological improvements that allow agencies to manage their notices and advertisements independently.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 4012 amends the Government Code to update and modernize state law relating to the administration of the state business daily. The bill removes the requirement for the comptroller of public accounts, each business day, to produce and post in an electronic format a business daily about each state agency procurement that will exceed $25,000 in value and about any other information relating to the state's business activity that the comptroller considers to be of public interest. The bill requires the comptroller instead to operate the electronic state business daily for state agencies and other eligible entities to advertise pre-solicitation notices, solicitations, and contract awards and removes the requirement that each state agency cooperate with the comptroller in making the electronic business daily available. The bill replaces the requirement for each agency that will award a procurement contract estimated to exceed $25,000 in value to send certain required information to the comptroller for posting in the state business daily with a requirement for the agency to directly post the information in the electronic state business daily. The bill includes among the information that must be provided for each such procurement the business email address of the agency employee a person may contact to inquire about all necessary information related to making a bid or proposal or other applicable expression of interest for the procurement contract.

H.B. 4012, with respect to accommodating businesses that do not have the technical means to access the state business daily, updates provisions relating to the physical downloading of documents by third-party entities to provide to the business and to the charges that may be imposed to recover costs in providing those documents to reflect the bill's updated administration of the state business daily. The bill prohibits an entity that provides public access to the electronic state business daily from charging a fee for providing that access.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2023.