BILL ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 1675 By: Campos Public Health Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In May 2012, the Texas Department of Banking issued an opinion that state law did not provide for pets to be buried in human cemeteries. Despite the strong bond humans often experience with their pets, this current restriction prevents individuals from experiencing the comfort of being interred with the cremated remains of their beloved pets. C.S.H.B. 1675 seeks to address this issue by providing for the cremated remains of a pet to be jointly interred with its owner in a perpetual care cemetery. CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Finance Commission of Texas in SECTION 3 of this bill. ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 1675 amends the Health and Safety Code to authorize a perpetual care cemetery to allow the following: the cremated remains of a deceased individual's pet to be buried in the individual's casket at the time of the individual's interment or placed beside the individual's cremated remains in a columbarium; and information about the pet to be included on the individual's memorial. The bill prohibits an individual from euthanizing a pet for the purpose of interring the pet with a deceased individual and authorizes a perpetual care cemetery to dedicate an area, separate from other areas of the cemetery, as a family cemetery in which a family's human and pet remains may be buried in separate graves. C.S.H.B. 1675 defines the following terms: "columbarium," "grave," "interment," and "memorial" by reference to general Health and Safety Code provisions relating to cemeteries; "cremated remains" as the bone fragments remaining after the cremation process, which may include the residue of any foreign materials that were cremated with the human or pet remains; "cremation" as the irreversible process of reducing human or pet remains to bone fragments through extreme heat and evaporation, which may include the processing or the pulverization of bone fragments; and "pet" as a domesticated animal that an individual owns and keeps in or near the individual's household for the primary purpose of companionship, not including a livestock animal as defined under Penal Code provisions relating to the offense of cruelty to livestock animals. C.S.H.B. 1675 requires the Finance Commission of Texas, as soon as practicable after the bill's effective date, to adopt rules necessary to implement the bill's provisions. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2025. COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE While C.S.H.B. 1675 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill. The substitute omits the introduced version's authorization for a perpetual care cemetery to allow the cremated remains of a deceased individual's pet to buried in a separate grave near the individual's grave at the time of the individual's interment.
BILL ANALYSIS
# BILL ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 1675
By: Campos
Public Health
Committee Report (Substituted)
C.S.H.B. 1675
By: Campos
Public Health
Committee Report (Substituted)
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In May 2012, the Texas Department of Banking issued an opinion that state law did not provide for pets to be buried in human cemeteries. Despite the strong bond humans often experience with their pets, this current restriction prevents individuals from experiencing the comfort of being interred with the cremated remains of their beloved pets. C.S.H.B. 1675 seeks to address this issue by providing for the cremated remains of a pet to be jointly interred with its owner in a perpetual care cemetery.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Finance Commission of Texas in SECTION 3 of this bill.
ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 1675 amends the Health and Safety Code to authorize a perpetual care cemetery to allow the following: the cremated remains of a deceased individual's pet to be buried in the individual's casket at the time of the individual's interment or placed beside the individual's cremated remains in a columbarium; and information about the pet to be included on the individual's memorial. The bill prohibits an individual from euthanizing a pet for the purpose of interring the pet with a deceased individual and authorizes a perpetual care cemetery to dedicate an area, separate from other areas of the cemetery, as a family cemetery in which a family's human and pet remains may be buried in separate graves. C.S.H.B. 1675 defines the following terms: "columbarium," "grave," "interment," and "memorial" by reference to general Health and Safety Code provisions relating to cemeteries; "cremated remains" as the bone fragments remaining after the cremation process, which may include the residue of any foreign materials that were cremated with the human or pet remains; "cremation" as the irreversible process of reducing human or pet remains to bone fragments through extreme heat and evaporation, which may include the processing or the pulverization of bone fragments; and "pet" as a domesticated animal that an individual owns and keeps in or near the individual's household for the primary purpose of companionship, not including a livestock animal as defined under Penal Code provisions relating to the offense of cruelty to livestock animals. C.S.H.B. 1675 requires the Finance Commission of Texas, as soon as practicable after the bill's effective date, to adopt rules necessary to implement the bill's provisions.
EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2025.
COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE While C.S.H.B. 1675 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill. The substitute omits the introduced version's authorization for a perpetual care cemetery to allow the cremated remains of a deceased individual's pet to buried in a separate grave near the individual's grave at the time of the individual's interment.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
In May 2012, the Texas Department of Banking issued an opinion that state law did not provide for pets to be buried in human cemeteries. Despite the strong bond humans often experience with their pets, this current restriction prevents individuals from experiencing the comfort of being interred with the cremated remains of their beloved pets. C.S.H.B. 1675 seeks to address this issue by providing for the cremated remains of a pet to be jointly interred with its owner in a perpetual care cemetery.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Finance Commission of Texas in SECTION 3 of this bill.
ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 1675 amends the Health and Safety Code to authorize a perpetual care cemetery to allow the following:
the cremated remains of a deceased individual's pet to be buried in the individual's casket at the time of the individual's interment or placed beside the individual's cremated remains in a columbarium; and
information about the pet to be included on the individual's memorial.
The bill prohibits an individual from euthanizing a pet for the purpose of interring the pet with a deceased individual and authorizes a perpetual care cemetery to dedicate an area, separate from other areas of the cemetery, as a family cemetery in which a family's human and pet remains may be buried in separate graves.
C.S.H.B. 1675 defines the following terms:
"columbarium," "grave," "interment," and "memorial" by reference to general Health and Safety Code provisions relating to cemeteries;
"cremated remains" as the bone fragments remaining after the cremation process, which may include the residue of any foreign materials that were cremated with the human or pet remains;
"cremation" as the irreversible process of reducing human or pet remains to bone fragments through extreme heat and evaporation, which may include the processing or the pulverization of bone fragments; and
"pet" as a domesticated animal that an individual owns and keeps in or near the individual's household for the primary purpose of companionship, not including a livestock animal as defined under Penal Code provisions relating to the offense of cruelty to livestock animals.
C.S.H.B. 1675 requires the Finance Commission of Texas, as soon as practicable after the bill's effective date, to adopt rules necessary to implement the bill's provisions.
EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2025.
COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 1675 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
The substitute omits the introduced version's authorization for a perpetual care cemetery to allow the cremated remains of a deceased individual's pet to buried in a separate grave near the individual's grave at the time of the individual's interment.