Government Affairs
Legislative Upate
For the last year, Texas Craft Brewers Guild has been directly involved with the development of key craft beer related legislation that is now making its way through the 83rd session of the Texas Legislature. Craft beer bills were introduced in the Texas Senate back in February and were approved on the Senate floor in late March. The bills were then passed to the House of Representatives at the beginning of the month and began the process of making their way to the House Licensing and Administrative Procedures committee before they eventually go to the House floor. If passed by two-thirds majority in the House, the bills will go into effect as soon as they receive the Governor’s signature. Here is a high-level view of what these bill accomplish:
Update – May 20, 2013 - all craft beer related bills were passed in the House of Representatives by greater than 2/3 majority. They now go to the Governor’s desk for signature, at which point they will immediately become law.
Overall Objectives:
- Gain the ability for packaging breweries to sell their products to consumers on the premise of their breweries
- Gain the ability for brewpubs to sell their products into the wholesale tier
- Protect small brewer’s existing rights to self-distribute and build brand value
- Achieve these goals while protecting the integrity and viability of the 3-tier system
Description of the Current Legislation: SB 515-518 & SB 639
- Package of bills aimed at helping our state’s craft brewing industry, agreed to by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild, Beer Alliance of Texas, Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas (WBDT), Anheuser-Busch, Diageo, & Open the Taps
- Grants Texas brewpubs the right to sell to Texas wholesalers, a right out-of-state brewpubs already have. Raises production limit of brewpubs and allows for limited self-distribution (SB 515)
- Grants Texas packaging brewers the right to sell their products directly to consumers for on-premise consumption (SB 518)
- Adjusts Texas small brewers self-distribution limits to lower how much a participating brewery may sell directly to retailers, while increasing the limit of the size of a brewery that may participate (SB 516 & 517)
- Protects the state from Commerce Clause lawsuits related to self-distribution by eliminating an existing discrimination against out of state producers (SB 516 & 517)
- Codifies TABC Marketing Practices Rule against “reach-back pricing” (SB 639)
- Prohibits wholesalers from making payment in exchange for territorial exclusivity (SB639)
- Codifies certain contractual relationships manufacturing tier members may enter into with wholesale tier members (SB 639)
