This website will be unavailable from Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. through Monday, April 29, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. due to data center maintenance.

	Amend CSHB 300 by adding the following appropriately numbered 
SECTION to the bill and renumbering subsequent SECTIONS of the bill 
as appropriate:
	SECTION ____.  Subchapter A, Chapter 223, Transportation 
Code, is amended by adding Section 223.0125 to read as follows:
	Sec. 223.0125.  PAYMENT TO AFFECTED BUSINESS ENTITIES.  (a)  
This section does not apply to a highway construction project for 
which the contractor is an electric utility, as defined by Section 
31.002, Utilities Code, or a gas utility, as defined by Section 
101.003 or 121.001, Utilities Code.
	(b)  The schedule under Section 223.012(a) must, for a 
highway construction project with a planned construction duration 
of more than six months, provide for liquidated damages to be paid 
by a contractor to business entities located in a project area that 
are adversely affected by project completion delays. The department 
shall:
		(1)  incorporate the schedule as part of each contract 
awarded by the commission for a highway construction project with a 
planned construction duration of more than six months;
		(2)  collect the damages;                                              
		(3)  if the business entity is located in the corporate 
limits of a municipality, send the damages collected to the 
municipality in which the business entities are located; and
		(4)  notify each affected business entity that the 
damages have been collected and sent to the municipality.
	(c)  To receive damages collected under this section, a 
business entity must submit a claim to the department or, if 
applicable, to the municipality.  The department or a municipality 
shall distribute damages collected under this section according to 
the schedule.
	(d)  If a business entity located in the corporate limits of 
a municipality does not submit a claim for damages under Subsection 
(c) before the first anniversary of the date on which the business 
entity received notice under Subsection (b)(4), the municipality 
may use that portion of the damages for transportation projects 
that will benefit the municipality.
	(e)  The department and a municipality hold damages paid by a 
contractor under this section in trust for the benefit of a business 
entity that is adversely affected.  The money used to pay damages 
under this section is held by the department outside the treasury 
and is transferred by the department without an appropriation.