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

SB1247

SB1247 consolidates certain nonresident hunting licenses into a general license and a five-day option, eliminating the separate spring-turkey, annual-special and banded-bird licenses.

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Official caption: Relating to consolidating certain nonresident hunting licenses.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists Senate author(s): Perry. 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.

SB1247 consolidates certain nonresident hunting licenses into a general license and a five-day option, eliminating the separate spring-turkey, annual-special and banded-bird licenses.
The five-day license lasts five consecutive days and cannot be used for mule deer, white-tailed deer, turkey, pronghorn antelope, desert bighorn sheep or alligator.
The general-license statutory fee remains $100.75 or the higher amount set by the commission; $100.75 is not a promise of the checkout price.

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What does it do?

SB1247 consolidates certain nonresident hunting licenses into a general license and a five-day option, eliminating the separate spring-turkey, annual-special and banded-bird licenses. It was signed May 30, 2025, and took effect September 1, 2025. This simplifies the license categories but does not mean every affected hunter pays less. Final law, sections 2–4 and 7–8; Official history.

The five-day license lasts five consecutive days and cannot be used for mule deer, white-tailed deer, turkey, pronghorn antelope, desert bighorn sheep or alligator. Those listed species fall under the general-license requirement. A nonresident may buy multiple five-day licenses in a license year but may not acquire or possess more than one nonresident general license for that year. The act retains existing exceptions, including the provision allowing feral-hog taking on a nonresident landowner’s land with that owner’s consent and the separate exception for species covered by a valid nonresident trapper’s license. Final law, sections 2, 4 and 6; Existing exceptions.

The general-license statutory fee remains $100.75 or the higher amount set by the commission; $100.75 is not a promise of the checkout price. The five-day fee is set by the commission and capped at 50 percent of the general-license fee, replacing its former link to the special-license fee. The act updates license names in the annual-expiration provisions and border-state reciprocity provision; reciprocal privileges for nonresident general-license holders remain dependent on an agreement, not an automatic right to hunt anywhere in a neighboring state. Final law, sections 1, 3–5; Border-water reciprocity; Previous five-day fee rule.

What changed along the way?

The repealed provisions covered the special-license fee, the banded-bird license for pen-reared banded birds on licensed private bird hunting areas, the spring-turkey fee, and the separate spring-turkey license route. The five-day option is not a substitute for turkey or the other excluded species. The annual license still follows the statutory license-year framework, generally September 1 through August 31 unless the commission sets other dates; it is not automatically valid for 12 months from each purchase. Final law, sections 4–7; Former special fee; Former banded-bird option; Former spring-turkey fee; Expiration framework.

The introduced bill also proposed changing the separate falconry section to require a nonresident general hunting license. The Senate committee substitute removed that proposed amendment, and it is absent from the final act. The substitute, Senate-passed, House committee and enrolled substantive texts match. The official amendment index lists no floor amendments; the falconry change was removed in committee, not adopted and then reversed on the floor. Introduced bill; Senate substitute; All versions; Amendment index; 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?

The Legislative Budget Board projects $1,082,787 more revenue in each fiscal year 2026–2030 for the dedicated Game, Fish and Water Safety Account No. 9. The separate general-revenue-related-funds estimate is $0 for the 2026–27 biennium; that does not mean no state account gains money. The note assumes administrative costs can be absorbed with existing resources and anticipates no local-government fiscal impact. The act itself makes no appropriation. Substitute fiscal note.

The projection assumes the same numbers of buyers as in fiscal 2024 switch products: 5,927 spring-turkey buyers move from $126 to a $315 general license; 2,423 annual-special buyers move from $132 to two $48 five-day licenses; and 2,372 banded-bird buyers move from $27 to one $48 five-day license. Those assumptions produce, respectively, revenue changes of +$1,120,203, −$87,228 and +$49,812 per year. They are the fiscal note’s prices and behavior assumptions, not new prices fixed by SB1247 or a guarantee that everyone continues hunting. Substitute fiscal note; Introduced fiscal note.

Some former specialty-license buyers therefore face a higher modeled cost, while others could spend less if their hunting fits a limited number of five-day periods. Actual effects depend on the species, days hunted, applicable exceptions and commission-set fees. The dedicated account may receive more revenue if the projected purchases occur. The law does not show an individual hunter’s final cost or guarantee the forecast revenue. Final law; Substitute fiscal note.

Official sources

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