BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 1948

By: Perry

Land & Resource Management

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

In 2025, the National Fire Protection Association Standards Council adopted a policy for the Fire and Life Safety in Animal Housing Facilities Code that will require certain animal agriculture facilities to install sprinkler systems or the equivalent. The bill sponsor has informed the committee that this change presents a number of untenable challenges for agricultural producers in Texas, especially those engaged in pork, poultry, fiber, or grain farming; for example, if sprinklers are deployed in the event of a fire in pork or poultry facilities, there would be biosecurity breaches in the facilities, which could indefinitely halt food production operations, and water runoff that would pose a general public health risk. The bill sponsor has also informed the committee that in grain and fiber processing or storage facilities, sprinklers could destroy any crop that was not damaged by the fire and financially harm the facility operators and the farmers who entrust their hard-earned harvest to the facilities. The bill sponsor has further informed the committee that states have authority over which fire prevention standards to adopt, and Florida and North Carolina have exempted agricultural buildings from the sprinkler mandate. S.B. 1948 seeks to prevent overburdening agricultural producers by prohibiting a governmental entity from requiring sprinklers to be installed in certain agricultural facilities.

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. 1948 amends the Government Code to prohibit a governmental entity from adopting or enforcing an ordinance, order, rule, or other measure that requires the installation of a fire protection sprinkler system in an agricultural pole barn, a nonresidential farm building, a cotton gin, a cottonseed storage building, a grain storage facility, a livestock market, or a commercial feed mill.

S.B. 1948 defines the following terms:

· "agricultural pole barn" as a nonresidential farm building in which 70 percent or more of the perimeter walls are permanently open and allow free ingress and egress;

· "governmental entity" by reference as a political subdivision of the state or a board, commission, council, department, or other agency in the executive branch of state government that is created by constitution or statute, including a public institution of higher education;

· "livestock market" by reference to Agriculture Code provisions as a stockyard, sales pavilion, or sales ring where livestock, exotic livestock, or exotic fowl are assembled or concentrated at regular or irregular intervals for sale, trade, barter, or exchange; and

· "nonresidential farm building" as any temporary or permanent building on a farm, ranch, or other agricultural facility that is used primarily for agricultural purposes and not intended to be used as a residential dwelling, including a barn, greenhouse, shade house, farm office, storage building, workshop, poultry house, animal handling facility, or commodity storage and feed processing facility.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.