February 2023
Kelly Crouch, CFA Legislative Information Liaison
Sharon Coleman, CFA Legislative Legal Analyst
Two 2021 Texas licensed breeder bills that would make participating in the legal hobby of pedigree cat breeding more difficult are seeing new life in 2023. Occasionally activists will refile legislation in future sessions if not initially successful. Such is the case with the 2023 House Bill 274 to reduce the breeder licensing threshold and HB 674 requiring breeder bill of sales.
Motivated by the 2020 Sunset Advisory Commission’s recommendation to eliminate the Licensed Breeder Program, activists sought to preserve the program by increasing the number of licensees. Both HB 274 and its predecessor SB 323, would reduce the threshold to “5 or more adult intact female animals and is engaged in the business of breeding those animals for direct or indirect sale or for exchange in return for consideration.” Currently, the numerical threshold is 11 adult intact females. House Bill 274 would also eliminate the transaction threshold of not fewer than 20 in a calendar year. Representative Vikki Goodwin (D-47, Austin) is the author of the 2023 HB 274.
House Bill 674, and its predecessor HB 3057, would require a licensed breeder to “provide to a purchaser a bill of sale for each animal sold or exchanged in return for consideration,” with six requirements and record retention by the licensee.
Representative Barbara Gervin-Hawkins (D-120, San Antonio) is the author of both HB 674 and HB 3057 which died in the Senate. However, the 2021 threshold bill authored by Senator Royce West (D-23, Dallas) was referred to Senate committee with no action.
The 88th Texas legislative session ends May 29, 2023. The provided bill links are for the individual bills’ legislative information pages. As the session progresses, any new information will be added to these pages. A past session’s progress is not predictive of how reintroduced bills will advance; however, the history may be helpful.
EDITOR’S NOTE 3/18/2023 HB 2238 (Buckley) will be heard in The House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee will meet on Wednesday, March 22 at 8:00am in room E2.010 of the State Capitol.
EDITOR’S NOTE: On Monday, February 13, 2023, identical Republican Licensed Breeder bills were filed in both the Texas Senate and House, i.e. Senate Bill 876 (Flores | Whitmire) and House Bill 2238 (Buckley) — the exact same wording as Democrat HB 274 discussed above. There are Republican majorities in both houses and a Republican Governor, so this might be a bit of a 3-ring circus.
Texas Senate – 31 seats. 88th session stats -19 Republicans and 12 Democrats
Texas House – 150 seats, 88th session stats – 86 Republicans and 64 Democrats