BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	C.S.S.B. 1249
88R18737 MCF-D	By: Hancock
	Health & Human Services
	3/30/2023
	Committee Report (Substituted)

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

Although the Department of Public Safety has provided persons applying for their driver's license or identification card the option to register as an organ donor through the Donate Life Texas Registry for more than a decade, the state currently is not offering a similar program to register as a living donor or to provide Texans with information on how to become a living donor. More than 100,000 people are on the national transplant waiting list and more than 85 percent of patients waiting are in need of a kidney. In 2020, 5,700 more lives were saved through the generosity of living donors.

S.B. 1249 amends current law to facilitate an increase in live donors by providing for the establishment of a live donor recruitment program and the development of related informational materials.

(Original Author's/Sponsor's Statement of Intent)

C.S.S.B. 1249 amends current law related to the establishment of a living organ donor education program.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Subtitle B, Title 2, Health and Safety Code, by adding Chapter 54, as follows:

CHAPTER 54. LIVING ORGAN DONOR EDUCATION PROGRAM

Sec. 54.001. ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM. (a) Requires the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to establish a living organ donor education program to educate residents of this state about:

(1) the need for living organ donors, including the particular need for donors from minority populations;

(2) the partnership between the Glenda Dawson Donate Life Texas Registry for deceased organ donation, maintained by Donate Life Texas, and other organ donor registries for living organ donation;

(3) the requirements for registering as a potential living organ donor;

(4) the medical screening and procedures necessary for an individual to be a living organ donor; and

(5) the availability of information about living organ donation in health care facilities, transplant centers, organ procurement organizations, tissue banks, eye banks, and driver's license offices.

Sec. 54.002. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS. Requires DSHS, in consultation with Donate Life Texas, to develop written and electronic informational materials, including links to Internet websites and machine-readable codes, regarding:

(1) living organ donation; and

(2) the process of registering with a living donor registry.

(b) Authorizes Donate Life Texas to develop and provide the informational materials described by Subsection (a) to DSHS.

(c) Requires DSHS and the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas (DPS) to post the information described by Subsection (a) on each of the agency's Internet websites.

(d) Authorizes appropriate health care facilities, transplant centers, organ procurement organizations, tissue banks, eye banks, and driver's license offices to access the informational materials described by Subsection (a) on the Internet websites of DSHS and DPS and print the materials to place in their facilities or offices to provide to residents of this state.

SECTION 2. Requires DSHS to establish the program and obtain the informational materials as required by Chapter 54, Health and Safety Code, as added by this Act, as soon as practicable after the effective date of this Act.

SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 2023.