House Culture, Recreation and Tourism Panel to Examine Oyster Farming, License Buyback, Travis Letter

The Texas House Committee on Culture, Recreation and Tourism will gavel in at 10 a.m. Sept. 30 in Capitol Extension room E2.012 to hear from invited witnesses on the state’s young oyster-farming industry, a program that pays commercial fishermen to retire their oyster licenses and the planned move of William B. Travis’ “Victory or Death” letter to the Alamo.

Only invited witnesses will testify, according to the hearing notice, but Texans can file written comments on all three topics through the committee’s online portal until the hearing adjourns.

Rep. Will Metcalf, R–Conroe, chairs the nine-member panel, which splits five Republicans to four Democrats, with Rep. Lulu Flores, D–Austin, as vice chair, according to Texas Legislature Online. The charges are among those Speaker Dustin Burrows issued in his March interim charges. The oyster questions arrive after a rough season on the public reefs: in April the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department closed the last open harvest area in Galveston Bay for lack of legal-size oysters, more than a week before the season was set to end, Houston Public Media reported.

The Cultivated Oyster Mariculture charge asks members to evaluate the industry’s obstacles, including trouble obtaining insurance, access to capital, the lack of in-state hatcheries, research needs and market access, and to weigh the benefits of oyster farming for water quality and coastal ecosystems.

Lawmakers legalized off-bottom oyster farming in 2019 with House Bill 1300, making Texas the last coastal state to allow the practice, according to the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. Early farmers had to buy seed from hatcheries in other states and win sign-offs from several state and federal agencies beyond the parks department, Houston Public Media reported in 2023.

Some operations have since scaled up; brothers David and Jacob Aparicio grow about 4 million oysters a year in Matagorda Bay, Texas Farm Bureau’s Texas Agriculture reported in March. Last session the committee advanced House Bill 609 by panel member Rep. Cody Vasut, R–Angleton, which lets farmers clean their gear on site with untreated bay water; it took effect Sept. 1, 2025.

The Voluntary Commercial Oyster License Buyback charge directs the committee to study the health of wild reefs, review the department’s buyback program and conservation plans, and decide whether more state support is needed. After years of reverse-bid auctions drew limited interest, the department switched in 2025 to a flat offer of $30,000 per license.

The first round retired 112 licenses and a second round that closed May 15 retired 46 more, removing nearly 30 percent of commercial oyster licenses, Coastal Conservation Association Texas said in June; the group supplied $1 million in anchor funding alongside state money and private donors.

For the 2025-26 season the department chose to “temporarily depart from strict adherence to the established thresholds” for opening reefs to aid commercial harvesters, it said last October.

Under its Monitoring charge, the committee will check on House Bill 1397 by Rep. Cody Harris, R–Palestine, which Metcalf co-authored. The law makes the State Preservation Board responsible for the 1836 Travis letter, the Texas Constitution and the Texas Declaration of Independence, and directs the board to designate a secure spot in the Alamo complex and move the letter there once the Texas Historical Commission deems it safe. Until then, the letter is to be displayed at the Capitol alongside the other two documents, and the board owes lawmakers a display plan by Dec. 1, 2027, according to the enrolled bill. The House passed it 143-0 and the Senate 29-2; it took effect Sept. 1, 2025.

Because this is an interim hearing, the committee will take no votes and no legislation is before it. What members hear will shape the panel’s interim report and bills for the 90th Legislature, which convenes in January 2027.

Meeting at a Glance

Committee members

• Rep. Will Metcalf, R–Conroe (HD-16) — Chair
• Rep. Lulu Flores, D–Austin (HD-51) — Vice Chair
• Rep. Sheryl Cole, D–Austin (HD-46)
• Rep. Mano DeAyala, R–Houston (HD-133)
• Rep. Helen Kerwin, R–Glen Rose (HD-58)
• Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D–San Antonio (HD-116)
• Rep. Angelia Orr, R–Itasca (HD-13)
• Rep. Cody Vasut, R–Angleton (HD-25)
• Rep. Charlene Ward Johnson, D–Houston (HD-139)