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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