Texas Is One Step Closer to Making Alcohol-to-Go Bill a Law

At the start of the pandemic last year, in March, Governor Abbott made the very first announcement that alcohol would be allowed to be purchased with your takeout order.

Because so many local restaurants were struggling, Governor Abbott wanted to help out businesses that were forced to only serve takeout, so he issued a waiver allowing restaurants to allow alcohol to go- the only caveat was that you had to purchase food items.

Then, in January of this year, Governor Abbott promised that alcohol-to-go would be a permanent thing in Texas. On January 7, Senator Kelly Hancock and Representative Charlie Geren filed a bill that could make that waiver permanent. At the time, while the bill had not passed any of the necessary stages to become a law, Abbott was adamant that alcohol-to-go was here to stay!

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Well, great news! That exact bill was passed by the Texas House! The Texas House passed HB 1024 by a vote of 144-1 on Thursday, March 25. The bill is now heading to the Texas Senate for consideration.

House Bill 1024 would allow beer, wine and mixed drinks to be included in pickup and delivery food orders and greatly help restaurants by securing an additional stream of revenue.

The legislation will now head to the Senate, where a version of the measure must still  be approved by a committee before it can be considered by the full chamber. How exciting, right?

2020 was definitely an unprecedented time, and it's hard to think of the good that came from that year, but if anything, I think we can all agree that alcohol-to-go was one of the better parts of the pandemic!