BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3065

By: Bailes

Culture, Recreation & Tourism

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Current law prevents the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) from authorizing individuals to take protected game species outside of a hunting season for disease management purposes. TPWD employees are sometimes called on to dispatch wild animals that present a danger to the public, such as an alligators, mountain lions, or aggressive deer. C.S.H.B. 3065 would allow TPWD to authorize specific landowners and other individuals to take wildlife animals on their property for disease management purposes under certain conditions.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Parks and Wildlife Commission in SECTION 1 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3065 amends the Parks and Wildlife Code to authorize an employee of the Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) acting within the scope of the employee's authority to discharge a firearm to take wildlife on a public road or right-of-way if the wildlife is mortally injured or behaving in a manner consistent with the wildlife being diseased. The bill authorizes a person who is not an employee of TPWD or an agent of that person to take wildlife on the person's property if the person has written authorization from TPWD and is participating under the supervision of a TPWD employee in a program or event designated by the executive director of TPWD as being conducted for the diagnosis, management, or prevention of a disease in wildlife. The bill authorizes the Parks and Wildlife Commission to adopt rules to implement these provisions.

C.S.H.B. 3065 amends the Penal Code to establish that the offense of disorderly conduct involving the intentional or knowing discharge of a firearm on or across a public road does not apply to a person who, at the time the person engaged in the prohibited conduct, was a TPWD employee acting within the scope of the employee's authority to take wildlife under the bill's conditions. The bill applies only to an offense committed on or after the bill's effective date and provides for the continuation of the law in effect before the bill's effective date for purposes of an offense, or any element thereof, that occurred before that date.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 3065 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

Whereas the introduced established an exception to the application of the offense of disorderly conduct involving the intentional or knowing discharge of a firearm on or across a public road for a TPWD employee who was acting within the scope of their authority under the bill, the substitute establishes instead that such offense does not apply to such a TPWD employee who was acting in that manner.