AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) manages a system of hunting and fishing licenses. There are numerous requirements and types of licenses that individuals can purchase, and several stamp endorsements pertaining to different types of hunting and fishing. TPWD has 18 different fishing license options and 20 different hunting license options. Individuals must pick and choose from these options in order to be licensed to engage in all the activities they wish to. The compliance manual available to hunters and fishers is 85 pages long, indicating the complex and confusing nature of current licensing provisions. Consolidating all the fishing and hunting licenses into one master license will make the licensing system easier to navigate.
C.S.S.B. 1181 requires TPWD to conduct a study on consolidating noncommercial hunting and fishing licenses. The intended result is to enable more efficiency and ease in obtaining hunting and fishing licenses by creating one master license. When conducting the study, TPWD must evaluate how to create the master license while still maintaining current license exemptions, how to maintain wildlife management standards, the elimination of the mandatory hunter education course or the maintenance of the hunter education program under a master license system without unduly affecting persons who would need the license only for fishing, and ways to increase ease of use for hunting and fishing license applicants. This study must be completed by November 12, 2017.
C.S.S.B. 1181 amends current law relating to an interim study concerning this state's noncommercial hunting and fishing license systems.
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. (a) Requires the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) to conduct a study of ways to simplify and consolidate TPWD's noncommercial hunting and fishing license systems into a single master license. Requires that the study evaluate:
(1) consolidating all noncommercial hunting and fishing licenses, tags, and stamps into a master license while maintaining license exemptions in existence as of the effective date of this Act;
(2) how to maintain wildlife management standards under a master license system;
(3) the elimination of the hunter education course as a separate requirement for hunting with a license or how to maintain the hunter education program under a master license system without unduly affecting persons who would need the license only for fishing; and
(4) ways to increase ease of purchase and use for individuals applying for a hunting or fishing license in this state.
(b) Requires TPWD to submit to the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the chair of each committee of the legislature that has primary jurisdiction over TPWD a written report that summarizes the findings of the study conducted under Subsection (a) of this section not later than November 12, 2017.
SECTION 2. Provides that this Act expires December 31, 2017.
SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2015.