2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

2025 · Regular session · Senate bill

SB1197

SB1197 extends the existing airport/military-installation drone offense to qualifying spaceports.

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Official caption: Relating to the operation of an unmanned aircraft over a spaceport; creating a criminal offense.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists Senate author(s): Birdwell. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

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Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.

Bill highlights

Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.

SB1197 extends the existing airport/military-installation drone offense to qualifying spaceports.
A covered spaceport must be property or a facility used for launch, landing, recovery or testing of spacecraft and must either be licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration or operated by a spaceport development corporation under Local Government Code chapter 507.
The statute’s defenses to prosecution extend to spaceports: government or law-enforcement conduct and people acting for them; spaceport owners/operators and people acting for them; people with prior written or electronic authorization from the owner/operator or FAA; and the underlying property’s owner/occupant or someone with that person’s prior written consent.
The existing penalty remains a Class B misdemeanor, rising to Class A if the person has a prior conviction under the same section.

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What does it do?

SB1197 extends the existing airport/military-installation drone offense to qualifying spaceports. It covers intentionally or knowingly flying an unmanned aircraft over a spaceport, allowing it to contact the spaceport or a person/object there, or operating it so that it interferes with operations or causes a disturbance. The act does not specify a new distance-radius or altitude threshold. Final law, sections 1–3.

A covered spaceport must be property or a facility used for launch, landing, recovery or testing of spacecraft and must either be licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration or operated by a spaceport development corporation under Local Government Code chapter 507. The referenced spacecraft definition includes objects/components designed for suborbital, Earth-orbit or outer-space operations, including satellites, payloads and specified launch/reentry components. Not every property associated with a space business automatically meets this new Penal Code definition. Final law, section 2; Referenced spacecraft definition.

The statute’s defenses to prosecution extend to spaceports: government or law-enforcement conduct and people acting for them; spaceport owners/operators and people acting for them; people with prior written or electronic authorization from the owner/operator or FAA; and the underlying property’s owner/occupant or someone with that person’s prior written consent. These are defenses under this section, not a general exemption from every aviation rule. Final law, section 3.

The existing penalty remains a Class B misdemeanor, rising to Class A if the person has a prior conviction under the same section. The ordinary maximums are 180 days in jail and/or a $2,000 fine for Class B, and one year and/or $4,000 for Class A. Signed May 19, 2025, the act took effect September 1, 2025. It applies only to offenses committed from that date forward; if any element occurred earlier, the earlier law governs. Unchanged offense classification; Class B penalty; Class A penalty; Final law, sections 4–5; Official history.

What changed along the way?

The introduced, Senate committee, engrossed and House committee versions had the same operative text and defined a spaceport by launch, landing or recovery use. The sole indexed floor amendment, offered by Geren and adopted April 28, added testing. The Senate concurred May 5, and that addition appears in the final law. The bill expands the locations covered by an existing offense rather than newly creating the airport/military-installation restrictions or penalty levels. Introduced bill; All versions; Geren amendment; Amendment index; Prior law; Final law.

For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.

Official bill versions

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?

Qualifying spaceports, workers and operations gain an additional state criminal-law protection against the specified drone conduct. Drone operators face potential prosecution and must distinguish the law’s defenses from general permission to fly. The act does not quantify accident prevention, economic gains or expected prosecutions. Final law.

The March 31 introduced and April 30 final-stage fiscal notes anticipate no significant state fiscal impact, including on correctional populations/resources, and assume local enforcement, prosecution, supervision and confinement effects will not be significant. The April 30 note appears in both amendment-printing and final-version positions. Those estimates do not mean enforcement has no cost; no new appropriation is provided. Introduced fiscal note; Amendment-printing note; Final-stage note.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.