Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 1538 amends provisions of the Occupations and Health and Safety codes to continue the Texas Funeral Service Commission (TFSC) until September 1, 2015. The bill defines the rulemaking authority of the Department of Banking and TFSC relating to cemeteries, providing that the Department of Banking has the authority for perpetual care cemeteries and limiting the commission's inspection authority to other cemeteries. It provides that TFSC may not inspect other cemeteries unless an interment has occurred in the cemetery within the two years preceding the inspection or unless a complaint has been received, and it directs the commission to give a lower priority to an inspection of a cemetery than to an inspection of a crematory or funeral establishment. The bill transfers responsibilities of the Texas Department of Health relating to regulation of cemeteries to TFSC, changes provisions relating to provisional licenses for funeral directors and to exemptions from regulations for certain cemeteries, and adds violations for certain fraudulent actions. The Finance Commission of Texas is required to adopt rules concerning timely placement of burial markers and timely response to consumer complaints in perpetual care cemeteries, and the amounts that corporations operating perpetual care cemeteries are required to deposit into their trust funds for the operations of the cemeteries are raised. The governor is required to alternate every three years between a public member and an industry member when selecting the chairman of TFSC.