87th Session of the Texas Legislature

House Committee

​The House Committee tasked with oversight on matters that can affect our industry and our membership is known as the House Committee on Culture, Recreation and Tourism. A link to the committee and its current members is provided below.

Senate Committee

​The Senate Committee tasked with oversight on matters that can affect our industry and our membership is known as the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs. A link to the committee and its current members is provided below. 

Bills currently filed & pending:

​HB 426 - Would allow release to a low fence release site, from highest class release site to 5000 contiguous acres and within 200 miles of the source facility.
​HB 432 - Deals with facilities that receive a suspect positive result for CWD. When cleared, the department must allow facility to resume permitted activities.
SB 563 - This bill would remove elk from the exotic livestock classification they currently have.
​HB 1631 - This bill creates a mechanism to submit required mapping for aerial management to TPWD in a form other than georeferenced as currently required; and it allows TPWD to collect a fee for converting the map to a georeferenced version.
​HB 1781 - Recent TPWD rules prohibited cloning of deer under a deer breeder permit; but created a possible way to clone under a research permit; however, a research permit would not allow sale of any deer cloned. This bill would override that recent rule and make cloning legal under a breeder permit.
HB 1615 - This is known as the TPWD sunset bill. Every 12 years each state agency must undergo review from the sunset commission. This bill addresses areas of concern from the sunset report on TPWD. The bill is required and will pass both the house and the senate in some version. This bill will require TPWD to make rules for risk-based inspections on our industry. However, it will also require a standardized approach to those inspections. Industry will know what to expect when receiving an inspection, and inspections should become standardized across Texas rather than be different in different regions of the state.
SB 700 - This is the senate companion bill to HB 1615. Same language.
SB 1393 - This is a drug bill aimed at prohibiting off label use of any drug.
HB 3081 - This bill creates a digital tagging process for hunters.
SB 1240 - ​This bill is an ownership bill. As written, declares that animals possessed under a permit are property of the state. 
HB 2213 - This bill would allow an exemption from inspection of meat for hunter harvested exotics that are donated to food banks.
HB 3854 - This bill adds the following diseases to existing law that requires the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) to protect livestock and exotic animals from: brucellosis, classical swine fever, pullorum disease, fowl typhoid, and scabies. It also authorizes TAHC to require the slaughter of animals that have been exposed to “a reportable animal disease” or “animal disease reportable to the World Organization for Animal Health.” It also allows the TAHC to authorize the director of TACH to enact quarantines. Finally, it adds avian chlamydiosis, equine herpesvirus – 1, Schmallenberg virus, and tuberculosis to the list of diseases that must be reported within 24 hours. This bill allows the TAHC to create civil penalties for rules violated under this subchapter.
​SB 1996 - This is the senate companion bill to HB 3854.
SB 705 - This is the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) Sunset Bill. It is required by the legislature. A version of this bill will pass. The broadest reach of this bill removes the list of diseases the TAHC is required to protect livestock and exotic animals from and allows the TAHC to determine those diseases.
HB 1830 - This is the House version companion bill to SB 705.
HB 4488 - Relating to rule making review for TPWD & TAHC
For any questions on legislation or rules & regulations, please contact
​Kevin Davis at 512-461-2476 or kevin@dbcdeer.com.

​Last Updated: 3/24/2021