BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	S.B. 498
88R7195 LRM-F	By: Johnson
	Business & Commerce
	3/10/2023
	As Filed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

Statewide technology centers created by the Texas Department of Information Resources under Section 2054.378 currently provide invaluable IT services to governmental entities in Texas which allows these organizations to focus on serving Texans. These services include data center services, managed security services, Texas.gov, and an open data portal. These centers are highly beneficial to our state and this bill improves their functioning by offering more flexibility to the managing department.

Currently, the statewide technology centers are limited in what services they can provide due to two requirements in Section 2054.378. The first requires that services be provided to two or more governmental entities. This prevents the STCs from providing support to major Texas agencies if their needs are unique. This bill eliminates this requirement and allows the department to provide services to any number of governmental entities. The second is the lack of departmental authority to determine what services fall within their scope. Centers can provide services relating to information resources and information resources technology; and the deployment, development, and maintenance of software applications. This bill ensures the department its expertise in technology services can determine what services it will provide as technology needs develop over time.

This bill is supported by the Department of Information Resources. 

As proposed, S.B. 498 amends current law relating to the operation of statewide technology centers.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

Rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Department of Information Resources in SECTION 1 (Section 2054.378, Government Code) of this bill.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Section 2054.378, Government Code, by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (c), as follows:

(a) Authorizes the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) to operate statewide technology centers to provide governmental entities, rather than two or more governmental entities, on a cost-sharing basis, certain services.

(c) Requires DIR by rule to specify the services a statewide technology center is authorized to provide.

SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 2023.