BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	S.B. 2169
85R15347 MCK-F	By: Huffines
	Business & Commerce
	4/11/2017
	As Filed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

In the state of Texas, malt liquor and ale are defined differently than beer under current statute. This wording creates additional requirements for licensing, permitting, storing, reporting, delivering, taxing, et cetera for these different types of alcohol. This unnecessary separate designation forces licensees, vendors, and others to go through more steps to sell their product even though these products are largely the same.

S.B. 2169 seeks to eliminate the distinction between "malt liquor" and "ale," and treat both of those items as "beer" for licensing, permitting, manufacturing, transporting, storing, marketing, reporting, delivering, wholesaling, retailing, testing, labeling, and taxation.

Streamlining the system and treating these types of liquor as beer gets rids of excess unnecessary statute that requires additional licensing and does nothing but make it harder to sell these types of alcohol in Texas.

As proposed, S.B. 2169 amends current law relating to treating ale and malt liquor in the same manner as beer for purposes of alcoholic beverage regulation.

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 Chapter 1, Alcoholic Beverage Code, by adding Section 1.08, as follows:

Sec. 1.08. ELIMINATION OF DISTINCTION BETWEEN BEER AND ALE. Requires the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, notwithstanding any other law, to treat any product otherwise considered to be "ale" or "malt liquor" as "beer" for the purposes of licensing, permitting, manufacturing, transporting, storing, marketing, reporting, delivering, wholesaling, retailing, testing, labeling, and taxation.

SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 2017.