Texas House committee discusses flood bills despite standstill

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Texas House members on a special committee for disaster preparedness met Tuesday to discuss for the first time specific bills filed in response to the deadly Central Texas flooding.

The hearing included bills that would require flood disaster plans for vulnerable camps, establish a licensing requirement for emergency management coordinators and create a program for groups to be certified with the state to show potential donors during declared disasters that they are legitimate.

The discussion came two days after dozens of House Democrats left the state so that the chamber wouldn’t be able to vote on a draft of a new congressional map meant to give Republicans five more U.S. House seats — a map the House Democratic leader characterized as racist. Republicans have condemned the members for shirking their duties.

Committee Chair Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, vowed that the disaster committee would keep developing bills to fix problems even with many House members gone. Only one of three Democratic members on the committee was absent from the Tuesday hearing, Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston.

“We will continue to interview witnesses,” King said. “We will continue to craft common-sense legislation. And when our colleagues come back, we are going to pass these bills and provide a reasonable response to the entire state of Texas, and certainly to the victims of the Kerrville flood.”

Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, who is speaker pro tempore of the House, said the group also needed to know what work could be done by executive action or under existing law, without new legislation.

“I want to know what we can do right now because games shouldn’t be played with this topic,” Moody said. “And if it needs legislation, we will pass it. If it doesn’t, then it needs to be done now.”

Moody expressed frustration early on in the hearing when he learned no representative from the governor’s office was in attendance to answer questions. Other state agencies, too, failed to send expert witnesses, leaving legislators in the dark on how policies currently stand on several issues.

The committee discussed five bills but did not vote on any of them. They were:

* House Bill 1, which would create a training program for justices of the peace to learn how to manage disasters during which many people die; establish a mass fatality operations rapid response team to help provide information and coordination; require emergency management coordinators to be licensed; and set up a statewide volunteer management system where people would register, undergo a criminal history check and get credentialed to help in disaster response.

* House Bill 2, which would create a Texas Interoperability Council to develop and implement a strategic plan to address the need for new and old emergency communication equipment and infrastructure to work together across the state, and training for using that equipment. The plan could include the use of outdoor warning sirens and evacuation alerts, too.

The council would also administer a grant program for local governments to buy and build emergency communication equipment, such as radios and radio towers.

* House Bill 18, which would expand a recently created, multibillion dollar broadband infrastructure fund to be able to pay for emergency communication and warning systems, as well.

“A little bit could go a very long way,” said Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, who wrote the bill.

* House Bill 19, which would require a campground to develop a “flood disaster plan” and allow the state to charge a daily fine if it didn’t. The bill doesn’t stipulate what exactly the plans would be required to include but left that for the regulating agency. The state Department of State Health Services already requires youth camps to have emergency plans, though those are not evaluated by licensing workers. (The relevant expert from DSHS was said to be out sick.)

* House Bill 20, which would create a voluntary certification program under the state attorney general’s office for groups that ask for and take donations for disaster relief to show people during disasters that they are trustworthy. (No one from the AG’s office was present to explain how that issue is currently handled.)

The bills discussed at the hearing represented only the start of work on the topic, with more bills already filed and more expected to come. For example, other camp safety bills have also been submitted, including two that require the filing of camp emergency management plans with the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo said that, under his bill, campground flood disaster plans would be due by May 1, 2026.

“Some of our camps were not just wholly unprepared for this catastrophic event, they were wholly unprepared for any flooding event,” said Darby, who authored HB 19 and HB 20. “Being ill-equipped to handle a flood as a private citizen is one thing. But as a campground in charge of the lives of children, many of whom know nothing about the rivers or their dangers, (it) is malpractice.”

The bills reflected testimony from two hearings held in July by the House committee and its partner committee in the Senate, where lawmakers heard statements about the lack of requirements for emergency management coordinators, challenges of managing thousands of volunteers and difficulty identifying and handling the many victims’ bodies. At those hearings, the lawmakers also talked about the failures with getting first responders on the same radio channels early on.

But the discussion of the bills didn’t delve deeply into other big topics, such as regulations for building in flood plains or ideas for improving how warnings are issued or received.

King, whose district last year experienced horrific wildfires, continued a theme of past hearings to remind members that more disasters will come.

He called HB 1 “not a cure for disasters in our state” but at least a step toward preventing some future harm. With HB 2, he said it was another effort to shorten the 36-hour window he said typically passes before all first responders can get on the same radio communication channels, a common problem in multiple past disasters. King wrote both bills.

“We don’t know what the next disaster is,” King said. “We don’t know what form it’s going to take or when it’s going to come. What we can do is mitigate the devastation that comes with the next disaster.”

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