2025 · Regular session · Senate bill
SB1248
SB1248 restricts disclosure of recreational wildlife-harvest reports submitted to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, including where the animals or fish were taken.
Official caption: Relating to the disclosure of certain harvest report information submitted to the Parks and Wildlife Department.
Official report lists Senate author(s): Perry. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
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.
- SB1248 restricts disclosure of recreational wildlife-harvest reports submitted to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, including where the animals or fish were taken.
- The department may release statistics or compilations only in a form that does not identify the report’s submitter or harvester, or reveal specific harvest-location information—including a photograph that could identify the location.
- A separate provision permits disclosure to federal or state law enforcement when it supplies a lawfully issued subpoena.
- The law preserves the existing wildlife-disease notice rule: when the department learns of an outbreak of a disease designated reportable by the Texas Animal Health Commission on a property, it must notify adjacent property owners and that commission of the outbreak’s location and nature.
What does it do?
SB1248 restricts disclosure of recreational wildlife-harvest reports submitted to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, including where the animals or fish were taken. It covers reports about recreational harvest authorized by Parks and Wildlife Code chapters 42, 46, 50 or 71: game animals, game birds, fur-bearing and nongame animals, alligators, fish and other aquatic life. The covered report information is outside the Texas Public Information Act, but the bill creates specific disclosure routes rather than absolute secrecy. Final law, section 1.
The department may release statistics or compilations only in a form that does not identify the report’s submitter or harvester, or reveal specific harvest-location information—including a photograph that could identify the location. It may also disclose information to an individual identified in the report or that person’s representative; another governmental body, including law enforcement, as needed for a governmental purpose; or a department contractor with a nondisclosure agreement when necessary for research, analysis or another activity the department considers appropriate. Final law, subsections (d)–(e).
A separate provision permits disclosure to federal or state law enforcement when it supplies a lawfully issued subpoena. That is not the only route for governmental sharing: the governmental-purpose provision also remains. The act does not override another law that independently prohibits disclosure. References to the department include its agents. Final law, subsections (c), (e), (f) and (h).
The law preserves the existing wildlife-disease notice rule: when the department learns of an outbreak of a disease designated reportable by the Texas Animal Health Commission on a property, it must notify adjacent property owners and that commission of the outbreak’s location and nature. It does not make all disease information public, but harvest-report confidentiality does not cancel this specified notice duty. Final law, subsection (a); Wildlife-disease notice requirement.
What changed along the way?
The act adds a harvest-report protection separate from the existing personal-customer-information statute. It also gives the department and its officers and employees immunity from civil liability for an unintentional violation of the new section—not blanket immunity for intentional disclosure. Final law, subsection (g); Existing customer-information protection.
The introduced, Senate committee, Senate-passed, House committee and enrolled substantive texts are identical. Both committees reported without amendments, and the official amendment index lists no amendments. Signed May 30, 2025, the act took effect September 1, 2025. Its disclosure restrictions apply to disclosures made on or after that date, even if the underlying report was submitted earlier. All five versions; Amendment index; Official history; Final law, sections 2–3.
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?
Hunters, anglers and other covered report participants gain protection against public disclosure of identities and precise harvest locations. The tradeoff is reduced public access to the underlying reports, including for people independently studying wildlife management. De-identified statistics and the specified government, individual and contractor routes remain available; the act does not require every requested statistical release or promise that identifiable data can never be shared. The unintentional-violation immunity protects the listed public actors from civil liability for that kind of mistake. Final law.
The March 7 fiscal note anticipates no significant state fiscal impact, assuming existing resources can absorb costs, and no local-government fiscal impact. It does not quantify a privacy benefit, administrative saving or cost of reduced access. The act makes no appropriation. Fiscal note.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
