Bill Text: TX SB34 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Relating to funding for certain volunteer fire departments, to the preparation for and the prevention, management, and potential effects of wildfires, and to emergency communications in this state.

Sponsorship: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 8-3)

Status: (Passed) 2025-06-20 - Effective on 9/1/25 [SB34 Detail]

Download: Texas-2025-SB34-Enrolled.html

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S.B. No. 34

AN ACT
relating to funding for certain volunteer fire departments, to the
preparation for and the prevention, management, and potential
effects of wildfires, and to emergency communications in this
state.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. (a) In this section:
(1) "Fuel loading" means the amount of combustible
material in a defined space expressed quantitatively in terms of
weight of fuel per unit area.
(2) "Service" means the Texas A&M Forest Service.
(3) "University" means West Texas A&M University.
(b) The service and university shall jointly conduct a study
to determine the status and condition of fuel loading in wildfire
risk zones in this state and the corresponding risk of wildfire to
the residents, homes, businesses, and ecology of this state.
(c) In conducting the study, the service and university
shall:
(1) establish wildfire risk zones based on fuel
loading and the risk of wildfire to the residents, homes,
businesses, and ecology of this state within geographic areas
defined by the service; and
(2) solicit and consider information from:
(A) the Department of Public Safety;
(B) the Department of Agriculture, including the
Prescribed Burning Board;
(C) the Texas Division of Emergency Management;
(D) the Parks and Wildlife Department;
(E) the Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality;
(F) the State Soil and Water Conservation Board;
(G) the comptroller of public accounts; and
(H) other natural resource representatives as
necessary.
(d) The study must:
(1) for each wildfire risk zone established under
Subsection (c)(1) of this section, consider:
(A) the risk that fuel loading poses;
(B) the projected loss of life, property, and
natural resources should a wildfire occur in the zone;
(C) the financial impact of costs associated
with:
(i) reconstruction in the zone after a
wildfire;
(ii) potential loss of production in the
natural resource and agricultural industries in the zone after a
wildfire; and
(iii) fuel loading mitigation and asset
hardening in the zone; and
(D) whether the money invested in fuel loading
mitigation in the zone exceeds or is less than the value of property
protected by the investment and the amount of the excess or
shortage;
(2) assess the overall economic benefits to this state
of:
(A) prescribed burning;
(B) fuel loading control for wildfire
prevention; and
(C) public investment in fuel loading reduction
projects; and
(3) recommend changes to existing law to ensure that
public and private natural resource managers have the authority and
ability to appropriately mitigate fuel loading risks in each
established risk zone.
(e) Not later than December 1, 2026, the service and
university shall submit to the governor, the lieutenant governor,
the speaker of the house of representatives, and each standing
committee of the legislature with primary jurisdiction over the
service or university or another state agency from which
information is solicited under this section a written report that
includes a summary of the study and any legislative recommendations
based on the study.
(f) This section expires May 1, 2027.
SECTION 2. Subchapter B, Chapter 88, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 88.1255 to read as follows:
Sec. 88.1255. STATEWIDE DATABASE OF FIREFIGHTING
EQUIPMENT. (a) In this section, "fire department" means:
(1) a volunteer fire department; or
(2) a department of a municipality, county, or special
district or authority that provides firefighting services.
(b) The Texas A&M Forest Service shall create and maintain a
comprehensive database that shows in real time the statewide
inventory of firefighting equipment available for use in responding
to wildfires.
(c) The database must:
(1) include a description of the type of firefighting
equipment each fire department in this state has available for use
in responding to wildfires;
(2) include contact information for the fire
department with the equipment;
(3) be searchable by location and equipment type; and
(4) be accessible by all fire departments in this
state and allow each fire department to update the database
information regarding the fire department's available equipment.
(d) The Texas A&M Forest Service shall:
(1) establish and maintain an electronic system to at
least annually notify a fire department that provides the
department's firefighting equipment information to the database of
the requirement to update the information in the database; and
(2) assist a fire department that provides the
department's firefighting equipment information to the database in
updating the database annually or as soon as practicable after any
change in equipment availability.
SECTION 3. Section 614.102, Government Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (i) to read as follows:
(i) At least 10 percent of appropriations for a state fiscal
year from the fund for the purpose of providing assistance to
volunteer fire departments under the program is allocated for
volunteer fire departments located in areas of this state the
service determines are at high risk for large wildfires. If the
amount of assistance requested under this subsection in a state
fiscal year is less than the amount allocated under this
subsection, the remainder may be used for other types of assistance
requests.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 34 passed the Senate on
April 15, 2025, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0; and that
the Senate concurred in House amendment on May 28, 2025, by the
following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 34 passed the House, with
amendment, on May 21, 2025, by the following vote: Yeas 140,
Nays 0, two present not voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
Approved:
______________________________
Date
______________________________
Governor