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Legislative abuse by TX Rep Harvey Hilderbran District 53

Contact me if you have any questions
Joseph E. Forks
810 Firefly
San Antonio, TX 78216
210-349-1246

HB 2414 was introduced in the House with language that would have banned collection of reptiles and amphibians on public roads and right of ways in Texas. Numerous objections and concerns were raised about this ban, and hundreds, or perhaps thousands of concerned Texans wrote letters, called the Capitol, and sent e-mails in opposition to the bill. As a result, the House Representative Tracy King District 80 sponsored an amendment to HB 2414 with text favorable to our hobby. The amended version of HB 2414 was then passed unanimously by the House. Due to time constraints, or more likely pressure from Representative Harvey Hilderbran at the end of the session, HB 2414 then died in the Senate without a vote.

HB 12, an unrelated bill, passed the House and Senate but had to go to a conference committee to resolve differences between the House and Senate version. Neither the senate or house version of HB 12 had any of the HB 2414 text at that time.

According to the Guide to Texas Legislative Information (GTLI):
A conference committee's charge is limited to reconciling
differences between the two chambers, and the committee,
unless so directed, may not alter, amend, or omit text that
is not in disagreement. Nor may the committee add text on any
matter that is not in disagreement or that is not included in
either version of the bill in question.

Representative Harvey Hilderbran got around this limitation by authoring, introducing and passing HR 2912 in the House of Representatives and getting State Senator Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls) to author, introduce, and pass SR 1195 in the State Senate.

HR 2912 and SR 1195 gave the Conference Committee on HB 12 permission to add the pre-amendment version of HB 2414, despite the fact that this text was defeated via amendment in the House and was never voted on in the Senate, by stating the following:
(9) House Rule 13, Section 9, is suspended to permit the
committee to amend Subchapter A, Chapter 62, Parks and Wildlife
Code, by adding Section 62.0031 to read as follows:
Sec. 62.0031. HUNTING FROM PUBLIC ROAD OR RIGHT-OF-WAY
PROHIBITED. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), a person may
not hunt a wild animal or bird when the person is on a public road or
right-of-way.
(b) This section does not apply to the trapping of a raptor
for educational or sporting purposes as provided by Chapter 49.
Explanation: The change is necessary to prohibit certain
persons from hunting a wild animal or bird when the person is on a
public road or right-of-way.[/list]

The Conference Committee on HB 12, chaired by Harvey Hilderbran and Craig Estes then drafted the Conference Committee Report that drastically changed HB 12. The revised bill was then pushed through the House and Senate in the end of session rush.

The end result is that a ban on collecting Reptiles and Amphibians from public roads and right of ways that was defeated in the House and killed in the Senate by committee delays, was snuck into another bill via riders and passed into law assuming signature by the Governor.

These actions by Hilderbran and Estes thwarted the intent the Texas House, ignored the inaction of the Senate, and blind sided thousands of Texas hobbyist and sportsmen to push the agenda of Representative Harvey Hilderbran.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
Because this is a clear and blatant abuse of the legislative process in Texas and it illustrates how an unethical Legislator can push through an unfavorable agenda. You may not care about this particular law, but you MUST care about the Legislative process and we must hold our Legislators accountable for unethical behavior.

SOME FACTS ABOUT COLLECTING REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS
FROM PUBLIC ROADS AND RIGHT OF WAYS

* Section 41 (HB 1309) will allow Texas Parks and Wildlife agents free and unannounced entry into the homes of thousands of responsible taxpaying voters.
* We DO NOT support commercial collection of Turtles for the Asian Food Market
* We DO support bag limits and possession limits on certain species to limit impact of commercial collection
* We DO support the TP&WD white list to determine which animals can and can not be sold commercially
* Herpetologists do not use Firearms in pursuit of Reptiles and Amphibians
* It is already illegal to discharge a firearm on a public road or right of way
* Section 44 (HB 2414) denies Farmers and Ranchers the ability to deal with nuisance animals on public roads or right of ways
* Section 44 (HB 2414) makes it illegal for a child to chase a Lizard at a rest stop, ditch, or even the street in front of your home
* Traffic safety is a non issue as DPS has no record of a Herpetologist causing an accident on our public roads or right of ways
* The most common activity is to park and walk safely on the right of way
* TP&WD denies Herpetologists access to Wildlife Management Areas. Without public roads and right of ways there is no public land available for our Hobby.
* Section 44 (HB 2414) would make it illegal to restrain an animal even for the purpose of removing it from a roadway to save its life
* Section 44 (HB 2414) will cripple the Herpetology Departments at every Texas College and University. Without access to specimens collected from public roads and right of ways the number of specimens available for study will be reduced by over 90% since most of these specimens are donated by hobbyist Herpetologists. Ironically this will have a long-term negative effect not only on the Science of Herpetology but also on the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. How will the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department recruit qualified Herpetologists for their staff if the students do not have adequate specimens available as study materials?
* Section 44 (HB 2414) would be the first such legislation in any state which outlaws collection of non-protected non-game species on public roads and right of ways. In New Mexico collection from road surfaces is written into the law as legal means of take for non-protected non-game species, i.e. Reptiles and Amphibians.
* Section 44 (HB 2414) would represent a financial burden on already struggling rural communities that depend on tourist dollars from Reptile Hobbyists. The towns of Langtry, Comstock, Marathon, Del Rio, Freer, Sweetwater, Terlingua, Sanderson and Alpine among many others stand to lose a significant revenue stream should the act of searching for non-protected non-game species be prohibited on our public roads and right of ways.
* We have on file at your request opposition statements from the Biology Departments at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Texas Christian University, and the University of Texas at Arlington. New preserved and live specimens are required for study because the majority of the preserved collections at these Universities are in formalin, which renders DNA useless. Advances in DNA research warrant the non-commercial collection of non-protected non-game Reptiles and Amphibians by hobbyists from our public roads and right of ways.
* Collecting Reptiles and Amphibians from a narrow transect that passes through habitat (public roads and right of ways) is much more environmentally conservative because it leaves vast tracts of land as a buffer zone.