BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 1249

By: Hancock

Public Health

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Although the Department of Public Safety has provided Texans applying for a driver's license or identification card the option to register as an organ donor through the Glenda Dawson Donate Life Texas Registry for more than a decade, the state does not currently offer a similar program to register individuals as a living donor or to provide information on how to become a living donor. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, more than 100,000 people are on the national transplant waiting list and more than 85 percent of patients waiting are in need of a kidney, but in 2020 alone, more than 5,700 lives were saved through the generosity of living donors. S.B. 1249 seeks to facilitate an increase in living donors by providing for the establishment of a living donor education program and the development of related informational materials.

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 this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

S.B. 1249 amends the Health and Safety Code to require the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to establish a living organ donor education program to educate Texas residents about the following:

· the need for living organ donors, including the particular need for donors from minority populations;

· the partnership between the Glenda Dawson Donate Life Texas Registry for deceased organ donation, maintained by Donate Life Texas, and other organ donor registries for living organ donation;

· the requirements for registering as a potential living organ donor;

· the medical screening and procedures necessary for an individual to be a living organ donor; and

· the availability of information about living organ donation in health care facilities, transplant centers, organ procurement organizations, tissue banks, eye banks, and driver's license offices.

S.B. 1249 requires DSHS, in consultation with Donate Life Texas, to develop written and electronic informational materials, including links to websites and machine-readable codes, regarding living organ donation and the process of registering with a living donor registry. Donate Life Texas may develop and provide to DSHS the informational materials. The bill requires DSHS and the Department of Public Safety to post the informational materials on each of the agency's websites and authorizes appropriate health care facilities, transplant centers, organ procurement organizations, tissue banks, eye banks, and driver's license offices to access and print those posted materials to place in their facilities or offices to provide to Texas residents.

S.B. 1249 requires DSHS to establish the program and obtain the informational materials required by the bill as soon as practicable after the bill's effective date.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.