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88th Legislature - January 2023
In accordance with the Texas Constitution, the Texas Legislature meets every two years for 140 days. Each session is an opportunity to work with legislators to change and improve the laws that govern funeral service.
Following the 88th Legislative Session, the TFDA Legislative Committee has been diligently watching the Legislature and stands ready to go to work this session. As the session progresses, check back here for Legislative Updates. As bills are filed and make their way through the process, we will post them here as well as other helpful material.
Among the items we hope to have an impact on this session:
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88(R) HB 1554 Author: Raymond
Last Action: 03/03/2023 H Referred to Insurance: Mar 3 2023 1:58PM
Caption Version: Introduced
Caption: Relating to disclosure of a beneficiary to a funeral director under a life insurance policy. We have actively supported legislation similar to this for several Legislative Sessions, and finally reached a compromise in the 2021 Session from the opposition (primarily the Texas Association of Life and Health Insurers. The current strategy with the Legislative Session already past the halfway mark, is to pass the HB 1554 out of the House as soon as possible and then amend the legislation in the Senate to substantially increase the Insurance policy amount, and to shorten the 5 day period to disclose to less than 3 days.
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88(R) HB 2814 Author: Shaheen
Last Action: 02/24/2023 H Filed
Caption Version: Introduced
Caption: Relating to the ownership and operation of a columbarium by funeral establishment license holders. Last Session, TFDA has supported the concept of a Funeral Home being able to have a columbarium without having a cemetery. However, the TFDA Legislative Committee has concerns with the introduced version of HB 2814, and has been working on adding language to a committee substitute and/or other amendments that would address these concerns and others over the chain of perpetual responsibility should a funeral home with a columbarium go out of business. We have seen Churches sell their former church property, and issues arise as a result. We want to insure this does not happen with funeral homes in a similar circumstances, and are working on solutions so that TFDA can fully support the measure.
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88(R) HB 2342 Author: Guillen
Last Action: 03/09/2023 H Referred to Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence: Mar 9 2023 2:44PM
Caption Version: Introduced
Caption:
Relating to limitations on certain civil actions brought against persons licensed by the Texas Funeral Service Commission.
The objective of this legislation is to narrow the class of potential parties eligible to sue a funeral home for mental anguish, and distress to “Next of Kin” or immediate family, as opposed to current judicial interpretation, and case law of a broader group of relatives. Fifteen or more years ago, before a series of lawsuits, the only party that could sue for this purpose was the party to the contract for funeral service. That was changed through a series of court decisions, and it is very unlikely to be reversed by the Legislature to say that a spouse or other immediate relative cannot sue (only because of not being the party to a contract), and after the many years of case law, and court precedent. However, it is very reasonable to pursue changes to the law that would adopt the same definition used in wrongful death cases, as well as, other similar cases in statute. We are working on additional language for amendments to the bill in committee to further narrow and improve the bill language from the introduced version of HB 2342 to perfect the intention of the legislation before asking for HB 2342 to be advanced further in the process.
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