State Rep. Pat Curry, R-Waco, expects the devastating Hill Country floods will spur the Legislature to take action on emergency preparedness as he prepares to head to Austin for the July 21 special session.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week called for the special session to take up legislation for flood warning systems and relief funds for the Hill Country floods over the July 4 weekend. More than 120 adults and children died in the floods, and some 170 were missing as of Friday.
“I don’t think you’re going to see a blame game going on with this. I think what you’re going to see is, ‘What can we do to make it better?’” Curry said Thursday in an interview with The Waco Bridge.
He said the legislation could create a system of powerful sirens capable of “waking you up in the night” in flood-prone areas. He expects the Legislature to call for an investigation into the lack of flood warnings for Hill Country residents before the disaster.
State officials launched similar investigations after Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and the Panhandle wildfires last year. The fires led state legislators to create House Bill 13 in the spring legislative session.
That bill passed overwhelmingly in the House with support from Curry and state Rep. Angelia Orr, R-Itasca, who also represents part of McLennan County.
The bill would have created emergency alert systems, upgraded local emergency communication equipment and created a strategic plan to coordinate statewide emergency response.
The bill died without a hearing in the Senate, and Curry expressed dismay that it wasn’t signed into law.
In a statement to The Waco Bridge, Orr expressed gratitude for Gov. Abbott making flood relief and preparedness a priority at the special session. She said the state had to strengthen its “early warning systems and improve coordination with local officials.”
State Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
THC, redistricting on agenda
The governor also asked the Legislature to take up regulation of THC, the cannabis-derived drug, after he recently vetoed a Senate bill that would have banned it.
Curry supports restrictions such as restricting access to cannabis for those under 21, restricting product potency, and mandating tougher drug screening for certain occupations operating heavy machinery.“The governor’s charge is that he wants THC regulated, not banned,” Curry said. “My opinion on the regulation is, if you’re going to regulate, you’ve got to regulate strongly.”
Curry said he did not want “to tell adults what they can and can’t do” as long as there is “the right amount of regulation.
Perhaps the most controversial item set out on the governor’s agenda is a call for a mid-decade congressional redistricting, which President Donald Trump has sought ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Curry struck a noncommittal note on the issue.
“I mean, it is legal to redistrict for political purposes and when the Democrats are in control, they actually do it if they can,” Curry said. But he added that the Texas GOP is wary of so-called “dummymandering,” where the tactic backfires.
Each opposition voter removed from one district has to end up in another, creating the potential for competitive races in places where a party’s seat was thought to be secure.
“Redistricting creates some risk, too,” Curry said.
An additional risk is a tit-for-tat redistricting between red states and blue states, he added. California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to do just that if Texas pursues heavy-handed redistricting.
