A bill that Texas craft brewers say would threaten their business drew sharp criticism Tuesday from business and consumer groups, a conservative public policy organization and even global beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev.

"That is very simply a government-sponsored price-fixing cartel," Mario Loyola of the Texas Public Policy Foundation said in testimony before the Senate Business and Commerce Committee in Austin.

He cited a provision that would force manufacturers to charge one price to distributors statewide, regardless of varying market circumstances, but allow the distributors to sell to retailers at any price they wished. Supporters say this would clarify existing law and prevent dishonest dealing by brewers, but it was widely derided Tuesday.

"From the consumers' point of view, that's the worst of all possible worlds, restricted output and higher prices at every level," said Loyola, who has written for conservative publications and served as a state policy adviser to former Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

"In fact, the law, in our view, should be amended in exactly the opposite direction."

In a crowded hearing room lined with craft brewers and other industry representatives, the lone supporter testifying for the measure, Senate Bill 639, was Randy Yarbrough of the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas.

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, politely grilled Yarbrough after noting that the wholesalers group had not raised these issues during a yearlong series of meetings that brought industry and legislative leaders together to hammer out legislation.

Another critic, Anheuser-Busch's Dallas-based region vice president of sales Keith Diggs, pointed out that in other states where such pricing mandates have been enacted, consumer prices increased markedly. He said SB 639 ignores that "what goes on in East Texas is not the same as what goes on in Brownsville, Texas."

Rick Donley, president of the Beer Alliance of Texas, which represents Silver Eagle Distributors and other major wholesalers that collectively handle more beer volume in the state than Yarbrough's group, joined the Texas Retailers Association, Texas Association of Business and Texas Association of Manufacturers in criticizing the bill as anti-competitive.

Open The Taps, a consumer group based in Houston, also filed opposition. An Open The Taps representative, Leslie Sprague, was one of several people to testify earlier in the hearing in favor of a separate package of bills that would loosen some restrictions on where and how craft breweries and brewpubs can sell their products.

One of those bills would allow brewpubs to package and sell to outside retailers up to 10,000 barrels of beer each year. Currently, brewpubs can sell their beer only on-site.

Scott Metzger, owner of Freetail Brewing Co. in San Antonio, said he can go to a grocery store and purchase beer made by an out-of-state brewpub. He testified that Freetail could sell more beer in Texas if he moved the company out of Texas.

Metzger was joined by Brock Wagner, owner of Houston's Saint Arnold Brewing Co., representing the Texas Craft Brewers Guild.

Another bill would allow Saint Arnold and other shipping breweries to sell up to 5,000 barrels of beer directly to consumers for consumption on-site. Wagner said his company, founded in 1994, produced 49,000 barrels of beer last year. Breweries in states with more craft-beer-friendly laws that opened around the same time are four to 10 times larger, he said.

Donley testified in favor of that package of bills; representatives of the other wholesaler group filed opposition to part of it.

Committee Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas - who introduced SB 639, which he described as an effort to represent competing viewpoints - said he wants those interests addressed and legislation on his desk quickly.