Texas Legislature Special Session: Flood Relief, Warning Systems, and Hemp Products

Disaster Preparedness and Flood Relief

• 🎯 Disaster preparedness and flood relief are central themes of the special legislative session in Austin.
• 💡 A joint select committee on disaster preparedness and flooding has convened to address these issues.
• 🛠️ Lawmakers are focused on improving warning systems, especially for areas with poor phone signal or where emergency notifications are silenced.
• 📡 Proposed solutions include sirens, gauges, supervisory computers with data acquisition, cell phone towers, 5G, and potentially Starlink for independent operation and watershed alerts.
• 💰 The estimated cost for these infrastructure improvements is in the tens of millions of dollars, with the state expected to fund the initiative.

Banning THC Infused Hemp Products

• ⚠️ Lawmakers are renewing efforts to ban THC-infused hemp products.
• 📜 Senate Bill Five, similar to a previously vetoed bill, has cleared committee and is heading to the full Senate.
• ⚖️ This legislation aims to outlaw most hemp products, including those legal under federal law, and would make manufacturing or distributing them a felony.