What you need to know
The bipartisan panels, known as the House and Senate General Investigating Committees on the July 2025 Flooding Events, will meet jointly to conduct “a comprehensive and thorough review” of the floods, House Speaker Dustin Burrows and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said.
Lawmakers will be tasked with:
- Identifying strategies to strengthen Texas’ disaster preparedness
- Helping communities respond to future floods
- Examining actions taken at summer camps in the flood zone
“The families who lost their precious daughters deserve answers, as do all Texans, on exactly what happened on July 4th,” Patrick said. “Camp Mystic has not spoken publicly on the record as to what happened that morning. They will be invited to testify, as will others involved in this flooding event.”
The committees were created by legislation passed at the end of a special legislative session this summer. The House committee will be led by Rep. Morgan Meyer, R-University Park, with Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, serving as vice chair. Sens. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, and Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, will serve as chair and vice chair of the Senate committee, respectively.
Other committee members include:
- Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo
- Rep. Paul Dyson, R-Bryan
- Rep. Erin Gámez, D-Brownsville
- Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola
- Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham
- Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio
After more than 130 people died in the July 4 weekend floods, state lawmakers heard from officials, emergency management experts and Central Texas residents during more than 24 hours of public hearings in Austin and Kerrville.
They passed legislation requiring summer camps to remove existing cabins from floodplains and develop comprehensive emergency response plans, which were supported by the families of the Camp Mystic flooding victims. Other new laws approved this summer set aside $278 million to help communities recover from the disaster and require flash-flood prone communities impacted by the July 4-5 floods to install flood warning sirens.
“If an event like this does occur again, those warning systems will go off in a way that will do everything possible to protect lives,” Gov. Greg Abbott told Community Impact in September.
Lawmakers also considered measures aimed at improving communication among first responders and strengthening licensing and training requirements for local emergency management officials, but they did not become law.
“As Texans work to rebuild and recover, it is the responsibility of the Legislature to understand what went wrong and ensure our state is better prepared for future emergencies,” Burrows said in an Oct. 13 statement. “While progress was made during the second special session to bolster Texans’ safety, the magnitude of this tragedy demands a comprehensive and thorough review.”
The joint investigative committees were announced about three months after the deadly flooding, although it was not clear as of press time when lawmakers would hold their first meeting.
