<\/p>\n
Members of the Texas Funeral Service Commission meet to discuss terminating Scott Bingaman as the agency’s executive director on June 18, 2025, in Austin. At center is Kristin Tips, who until last month was head of the commission’s board.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ricardo B. Brazziell\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Texas\u2019 inability to regulate body donation left research stalled and oversight in limbo for years, driven by dysfunction inside the agency tasked with fixing it. Now, officials say a Monday meeting could resurrect regulations, setting limits on how bodies are handled and allowing research to resume.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already begun to take concrete steps toward implementation,\u201d said Eric Opiela, the new presiding officer of the Texas Funeral Service Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n After several investigations drew attention to the mishandling<\/a> of anatomical donations<\/a>, lawmakers were alarmed at the lack of regulations governing body donation \u2013 and the inability of state officials to hold some companies to existing rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As a result, lawmakers charged the commission with crafting new rules for private companies that transport anatomical specimens and university researchers.<\/p>\n EXCLUSIVE: \u2018Petrified’ ex-funeral head warned Abbott\u2019s office of agency turmoil<\/a><\/p>\n But they were left in limbo for more than two years as the commission struggled to adopt a final set of rules to end the confusion \u2013 even after its former executive director, Scott Bingaman, drafted proposed legislation.<\/p>\n In an audio recording from June 2, 2025, obtained by the Houston Chronicle, Bingaman lamented that his plans for regulation of non-transplant anatomical donation organizations<\/a>, or NADOs, kept hitting a wall with his boss, funeral commission chairwoman Kristin Tips.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cShe’s being seen as a roadblock, and I need her to come to the table,\u201d Bingaman said to Opiela, explaining some compromise with the industry was inevitable.<\/p>\n Sixteen days later, Bingaman was fired unanimously by the commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tips did not respond to a request for comment regarding Bingaman\u2019s concerns or firing. During the legislative session, Tips focused less on regulating NADOs and more on banning them, outlining some of the horror stories that have drawn media attention and contrasting how funeral services providers like herself could handle care.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Upon termination, Bingaman accused the agency of \u201crot,\u201d<\/a> singling out Tips for focusing on protecting the funeral home industry over the interests of the general public. He later sued the commission, alleging Tips was misusing commission resources for her own gain.<\/p>\n Tips and her husband, Robert \u201cDick\u201d Tips, own and operate the Mission Park Funeral Chapels, Cemeteries and Crematories in San Antonio.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In its rebuttals to his lawsuit, the commission accused\u00a0Bingaman of mismanaging the agency and disputed his claims.<\/p>\n Tips quietly left the commission last month<\/a>, with Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s office declining to say whether she resigned or was replaced. Days later, officials confirmed Opiela was the \u201cpresiding officer\u201d of the commission, a change in the leadership title for the seven-member board.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Since last summer, the agency\u2019s tumult was widely known and a source of frustration for lawmakers and Abbott\u2019s office \u2013 and something Opiela was aware of days before Bingaman was dismissed.\u00a0<\/p>\n HOUSTON FUNERAL ALLEGATIONS: Gruesome claims shocked the nation. Then a quiet horror unraveled.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n During the recorded discussion with Opiela, Bingaman outlined his worries, ranging from Tips\u2019\u00a0<\/a>relationship with the governor\u2019s office to officials\u2019 desire for her to be less visible in the state Capitol and regulation of NADOs.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n By June 2025, Bingaman said he concluded they could regulate the\u00a0NADOs with some compromises, but Tips was looking to approve NADOs one-by-one via the commission.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve had these frank discussions with her, and she doesn’t really take it seriously,\u201d Bingaman told Opiela in the 52-minute conversation. \u201cShe pushed too hard, way too hard.”<\/p>\n Regulating NADOs had been a long-sought goal of the commission \u2013 and state lawmakers \u2013 since Texas abolished its state anatomical board in 2023<\/a>, in favor of giving its duties to the funeral commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rules for NADOs also affect willed body programs around Texas, which routinely send donated bodies to schools for research and teaching. The remains are then often cremated in school-owned crematories at a lower cost than sending them to a private funeral home or crematory.\u00a0<\/p>\n In attempts to curtail abuse, some sought to practically outlaw body donation and research uses in Texas altogether in favor of funeral services for all.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The outcome: Universities could not use donated bodies in the state and could not access bodies from out of state because of restrictions on their transport.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Didn\u2019t want to deal with her anymore\u2019<\/p>\n In the phone call, Opiela expresses frustration that it has taken so long to settle on regulations. One hiccup was that previous lawyers were uncertain the commission had the authority to draft the new regulations, while Bingaman and then-staff lawyer Christopher Burnett argued that they did.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe spent an entire legislative session wasting our time because somebody didn’t see this,\u201d Bingaman said.<\/p>\n Scott Bingaman, former executive director of the Texas Funeral Service Commission, reacts to the commissioners’ vote\u00a0on June 18, 2025.<\/p>\n Ricardo B. Brazziell\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n At the time, Tips was a visible presence in Austin, where she often testified with Bingaman in committee hearings \u2013 a rarity for an appointed chair but not unprecedented \u2013 and in her personal capacity as a funeral home owner.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI got hired to do a job, and she wants to drive the boat, and it’s hard, very difficult for me,\u201d Bingaman told Opiela.<\/p>\n Opiela agreed the divide was counterproductive, but cautioned Bingaman to tread carefully. When Opiela was appointed to the commission in 2022<\/a>, communication between the board and staff was limited, and a clash of personalities ultimately led to the executive director\u2019s ouster.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t want it to get to that point,\u201d Opiela said. \u201cThere doesn’t need to be a rift between you and any of us.\u201d<\/p>\n INSIDE THE FUNERAL COMMISSION: How the agency charged with regulating death fell apart<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Working with lawmakers, funeral commission lawyers and the industry, Bingaman told Opiela he was finding common ground for some regulations \u2013 at least sufficient to restart university body donation programs and establish limits to where and how bodies could be disposed of and dissected. Some of those rule changes were included in SB 2721<\/a>, which failed in the 2025 session after lawmakers could not make sense of the rules and industry concerns.<\/p>\n Bingaman\u00a0laid much of that on Tips, who wanted a more company-by-company approach.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that will make her mad if I approve these guys,\u201d Bingaman told Opiela.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n