The Texas Funeral Service Commission will meet Nov. 12 and vote on publishing for public comment a rewrite of most of its rulebook — licensing, the duties of funeral homes, enforcement, crematories and ethical standards, together with a new plan setting out how it punishes violations. Nothing is adopted that day. A vote to publish starts the clock on comment.
The package would also repeal the rule making it a violation for a funeral business to engage in unfair or deceptive acts. That rule largely restates a prohibition already written into state law, which is the profile of a rule a cleanup deletes rather than a protection a commission abandons. Whether the conduct is picked up elsewhere in the new package cannot be told from the notice, because the proposed text does not become public until it reaches the Texas Register.
The commission is doing this under scrutiny. The Sunset Advisory Commission has it under a limited-scope review for the session that opens in January. It has had no permanent executive director since June 2025, when it fired Scott Bingaman a day after he sent commissioners a letter attacking the agency’s leadership; he sued, alleging whistleblower retaliation, and Maria Haynes has run the agency on an interim basis since. Three of the seven commissioners have arrived since that summer.
The other half of the meeting belongs to the state’s body-donation system, which the Legislature handed this commission in 2023. Sitting jointly with the State Anatomical Advisory Committee, the commission will take up fee and transportation rules for willed-body programs and donation organizations, and whether to let a third party inspect out-of-state anatomical facilities on its behalf. The agency carries nine vacancies against 26 budgeted positions. It is the same regulator that in 2024 ordered the University of North Texas Health Science Center to stop dissolving unclaimed bodies, after NBC News reported the center had dissected bodies taken without families’ consent.
A closed-door review of one applicant’s criminal history and one pending enforcement case are also noticed; the commission has made no findings in either. The comment period it opens Nov. 12 is where the rewrite will be argued.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9:00 AM, Thursday, November 12, 2026. TRD 2026006586 was filed November 4 at 8:02 p.m., replacing TRD 2026006584. The next meetings are December 8 and January 5.
- Where
- George H.W. Bush Building, 1801 Congress Ave., Austin, with a Zoom link in the notice.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Funeral Service Commission — seven members appointed by the governor to six-year terms: two licensed funeral directors and embalmers, one crematory operator and four public members. Eric Opiela, presiding officer.
- Format
- In person and by videoconference under Government Code §551.127, 19 items, meeting jointly with the State Anatomical Advisory Committee. Public comment is limited to two minutes.
- Live video
- The notice offers Zoom access rather than a public broadcast. The Dispatch found no archived video; the agency posts agendas and minutes on its meetings page.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · agency laws and rules
Commission members
- Eric Opiela — presiding officer; Austin; attorney; public member.
- Jonathan Scepanski — assistant presiding officer; McAllen; public member.
- Larry Allen — Mesquite; public member; a former presiding officer.
- Ivan A. Andarza — Austin; attorney; public member.
- Timothy Brown — McAllen; funeral home operator; industry member.
- Jay P. Carnes — Texas City; owner, Carnes Funeral Home; industry member.
- Salvador Perches Jr. — El Paso; chief executive, Perches Funeral Group.
All seven seats are filled. Names, cities and seat types are from the commission’s appropriations request certified August 28, 2026, which is more current than either of the agency’s two roster pages; those pages disagree with each other, one listing five members and the other seven. Which of the three industry members holds the dedicated crematory seat is not stated by the agency; Perches is the member it describes as a certified crematory operator. The Dispatch found appointment releases from the governor’s office for Opiela, Allen, Brown and Scepanski but none for Andarza, Carnes or Perches, and none designating Opiela presiding officer.