BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

Senate Research Center

H.B. 406

86R26767 JG-D

By: Price et al. (Zaffirini)

 

Water & Rural Affairs

 

5/9/2019

 

Engrossed

 

 

 

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

 

The Glenda Dawson Donate Life Texas Registry, the state's organ donor registry, has been an unambiguous success. After only 11 years, Donate Life registered its ten millionth person in 2017. It is the fastest growing organ donor registry in the country. In 2017, 940 Texas organ donors provided more than 3,000 organs to persons in desperate need, an increase of 47 percent from five years prior. Donate Life's partnership with the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas (DPS), which asks applicants for (or persons renewing) driver's licenses or identification cards if they wish to be an organ donor, has been hugely successful. Approximately 83 percent of the registry's participants have come from DPS.

 

Despite the registry's success, however, more work needs to be done to increase awareness of�and, by extension, participation in�the organ donation registry. Currently, 115,000 Americans and more than 10,000 Texans are on a waiting list for an organ. More than 400 Texans died in 2017 while on a waiting list. Increasing participation in the organ donation registry could mean life-saving care to those who need it more frequently and more expediently.

 

H.B. 406 would require the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to include a link to the Glenda Dawson Donate Life-Texas Registry for persons to access when applying for a hunting and/or fishing license.

 

H.B. 406 amends current law relating to organ donor registration information when applying for a hunting or fishing license on the Internet.

 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

 

Rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in SECTION 2 of this bill.

 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

 

SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 12, Parks and Wildlife Code, by adding Section 12.0075, as follows:

 

Sec. 12.0075. ORGAN DONOR REGISTRY INFORMATION. Requires the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) to add on TPWD's Internet website a link to the Glenda Dawson Donate Life-Texas Registry operated under Chapter 692A (Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act), Health and Safety Code, for persons to access when applying on TPWD's Internet website for a hunting or fishing license, including a combination hunting and fishing license.

 

SECTION 2. Authorizes the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission to adopt rules as necessary to implement Section 12.0075, Parks and Wildlife Code, as added by this Act.

 

SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 2019.