Texas Review Warns Funeral Regulator's Failures Threaten Its Survival

By Olivia Hart

A Texas state review has concluded that the Funeral Service Commission's oversight of the state's body-donation program is so weak it jeopardizes the agency's future.

The finding comes from a scathing "limited scope" review by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, which regulates the regulator itself. "During this review, Sunset staff identified several core regulatory shortcomings at TFSC that raise serious concerns about the long-term stability and effective operation of the agency," the Sunset report began, as reported by The Texas Tribune's Terri Langford.

For the past year, the commission — which oversees roughly 1,200 funeral homes and embalming facilities across Texas — has faced allegations of mismanagement. The sharpest scrutiny has fallen on its supervision of the Human Anatomical Donation Program, which transfers human remains to research facilities and medical schools.

The stakes are not abstract. More than a year ago, NBC News reported that the absence of state supervision allowed one research facility to profit from donated bodies by dissecting them and selling the parts to other groups. The funeral commission conducted its own review and issued a moratorium on out-of-state shipments.

Why was this review ordered?

The Texas Legislature ordered the review through House Bill 1545, directing it specifically at problems within the body donation program. The Sunset process itself offers a once-a-decade assessment of an agency's performance ahead of a legislative session, and lawmakers routinely use its recommendations to draft bills that streamline workloads and improve efficiency.

One caveat is worth flagging: this is not the full accounting. The commission will still undergo a more comprehensive review in 2029, meaning the current findings may represent a floor rather than a ceiling on documented failures.

What did reviewers actually find?

The Human Anatomical Donation Program was transferred to the funeral commission three years ago. Since then, the Sunset report stated, the agency "has been rife with turmoil."

Reviewers found the funeral commission had failed to set proper rules and to administer them in a timely manner, leaving the agency exposed to legal liability. The review said the agency will need "significant" statutory and organizational changes if it is to continue overseeing the program at all — a phrase that leaves open the possibility it may not.

The problems extended beyond the donation program itself:

• The agency failed to communicate its own rules effectively, creating persistent confusion about its processes.
• "The agency has also struggled to perform other basic tasks a functional state agency should be able to accomplish," the Sunset review team found.
• It fumbled a routine transition from Google Workspace to Microsoft Office — the standard among most Texas agencies — by bypassing a required state-approved contractor, which prolonged the migration.
• For more than a year, it de-prioritized the anatomical donation program in favor of its traditional role regulating funeral homes.

How bad is the complaint backlog?

The numbers quantify the dysfunction. In fiscal year 2025, the funeral commission resolved 197 complaints related to funeral services activities but needed an average of more than 370 days to close each one — roughly a year per complaint. It ended the year with 603 complaints still pending.

The anatomical donation program's record is thinner still. In 2025, the commission received 12 complaints related to the program and resolved exactly one.

"Resolving complaints in a timely manner is not a new problem for TFSC," the Sunset review noted — an acknowledgement that prior warnings have not produced change.

The review also tied the backlog to high employee turnover, which has compounded the enforcement delays. In plain terms, the agency is losing the staff it needs to clear cases it is already failing to close on time.

What happens next?

The Sunset review's recommendations will land in front of lawmakers who have already shown willingness to intervene, having ordered this targeted audit after the NBC News investigation. Whether the legislature forces structural reform, strips the donation program from the agency, or accepts incremental fixes remains undecided.

What the review makes clear is that the status quo has a cost: a regulator responsible for 1,200 facilities and the dignified handling of donated human bodies cannot currently resolve a complaint in under a year. The 2029 full review will measure whether anything changed.