After stirring up an intense backlash, a Republican GOP lawmaker has backed off the bill he introduced to dismantle the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD).
State Rep. Pat Curry, who represents a district near Waco, filed House Bill 4938 on March 13. The proposal called for dismantling the department that oversees state parks as well as issuing hunting and fishing licenses.
Under Curry’s measure, the department’s duties would be divvied up among the General Land Office, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Public Safety.
The bill immediately experienced online ridicule and prompted a Change.org petition that gathered almost 6,000 signatures in opposition to the legislation. According to the petition’s author, “eliminating the department would disrupt critical services including wildlife conservation, law enforcement in rural and natural areas, land stewardship programs, and the maintenance of state parks and trails.” In response, Curry withdrew the bill Monday and issued a statement acknowledging it “might have ruffled some feathers.”
“I felt filing the bill was necessary to get the agency’s attention after discussions over proposed regulations on deer breeders had failed,” Curry said, as reported by the Houston Chronicle. “These proposed regulations, all in the name of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) threaten to infringe upon our private property and small business owner rights.”
Curry sits on the Committee on Delivery of Government Efficiency, formed in homage to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), billionaire Elon Musk’s unofficial government department aimed at dismantling programs on the federal level. DOGE cuts at the federal level have also threatened Texas parks, including shutting down the headquarters for the San Antonio Missions, the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Texas.
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This article appears in Mar 19 – Apr 1, 2025.
