By: Hinojosa S.B. No. 266
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the review of information technology systems used by a
state agency for compatibility with open standards.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 441.203, Government Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (m) to read as follows:
(m) The council, in cooperation with the Department of
Information Resources, shall:
(1) review each state agency's existing information
technology system to determine whether the system is compatible
with open standards; and
(2) consult with and provide assistance to state
agencies on:
(A) enhancing the state agency's information
technology system to achieve compatibility with open standards
where appropriate; and
(B) identifying and recommending information
technology systems that are compatible with open standards and
recognized best practices, including:
(i) open standards for document formats for
creating, exchanging, and maintaining electronic texts,
presentations, and spreadsheets, to replace outdated systems that
are to be retired or upgraded;
(ii) open standards for database systems
based on the Structured Query Language (SQL) standard defined by
the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), to replace
outdated systems based on nonrelational database technologies that
are to be retired or upgraded;
(iii) recognized best practices for the
structuring of data held in databases or disk file systems used by
mission-critical transaction processing applications, such that
the data is held in normalized relational data tables, to replace
outdated methods of data organization based on nonrelational or
highly nonnormalized data models, other than data warehouses and
business intelligence applications, that are to be retired or
upgraded;
(iv) open standards for computer
programming languages used for the development and maintenance of
applications, such that the programming languages used shall
conform to standards recognized by national or international
standards bodies, to replace applications developed in outdated
programming languages that are to be retired or upgraded; and
(v) open standards for operating system
hardware interface layers, such that operating systems used in
mission-critical applications are not tied exclusively to a single
brand of computer hardware or to a single type of microprocessor, to
replace outdated systems that are to be retired or updated.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2009.