Texas Lawmakers Will Debate Flood Response, Redistricting and Other Issues

New York Times

a day ago

A special legislative session in Texas, set to begin on Monday in the wake of the flood in Texas Hill Country, is shaping up to be an emotionally raw diversion into what Democrats say is the gerrymandering the state's House districts.
Lawmakers will also take up questions about the handling of the devastating July 4 floods, which killed more than 130 people, including at least 37 children. Nearly 100 Texans remain missing.
But that bipartisan imperative will be complicated by a hard-edge partisan agenda for the session, dominated by President Trump's push for the Legislature to redraw the state's congressional district maps to be more favorable for Republicans. He wants his party to gain five seats in Texas in the 2026 midterm elections to help retain control of the U.S. House.
Gov. Greg Abbott has asked lawmakers to also consider a dozen other items during the 30-day special session, including new hard-line conservative proposals to ban mail-order abortion pills, lower property taxes and regulate intoxicating hemp. And he wants lawmakers to consider a state constitutional amendment that would empower the state attorney general to prosecute election crimes.
'It's a wild situation,' said State Representative Jon Rosenthal, a Houston-area Democrat. 'The past sessions I've been a part of have been of a very limited scope.'
Most Texans' attention will probably lie with the July 4 flood and what can be done to improve warning systems, such as placing outdoor sirens along flood-prone waterways like the Guadalupe River, where most of the deaths occurred.
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The special session of the Texas State Legislature that is scheduled to convene on July 21 will be 'a wild situation,' said State Representative Jon Rosenthal, Democrat of Houston.
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Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle, via Getty Images
'That's the most obvious thing that can be done,' said Sid Miller, the state's Republican agriculture commissioner.
The redistricting fight, though, will have national implications and headline-grabbing potential. Democrats in the Legislature are considering walking out to try to thwart the effort by denying Republicans a quorum.
Redistricting is 'an inside-baseball thing,' Mr. Miller said, noting that while he supported Republican efforts to win more seats, 'most Texans are not too concerned about that.'
That dismissive shrug is probably not how it will play out more widely.
'Democrats must keep all options on the table,' said State Representative John Bucy III, an Austin-area Democrat gearing up for a fight on the issue.
As recently as a few weeks ago, many people in Austin felt that a special session this year was unlikely. During the regular legislative session, the governor had finally accomplished his signature agenda item, a publicly funded private-school voucher program — an achievement that had eluded his Republican predecessors, George W. Bush and Rick Perry.
But Mr. Abbott had unfinished business driving him toward an extra session. Then came orders from Washington: The president wanted Texas lawmakers to redraw the state's congressional map, because of worries about the slim Republican House majority surviving the midterm elections, which almost always favor the party out of power.
And then the floods hit the Hill Country. Last week, just before Mr. Trump visited the flood-damaged area, Mr. Abbott added flood response legislation to the special session agenda, along with redistricting.
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President Trump spoke alongside Governor Abbott at a meeting with emergency response personnel and local officials in Kerrville, Texas.
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Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
It remained unclear in what order the State Legislature would take up the two high-profile issues. Some lobbyists and legislative aides suggested that redistricting appeared likely to be handled first, because Democrats might be less likely to stage a walkout to stop the map-drawing effort if it meant blocking action on flooding as well.
But going forward with a partisan redistricting plan before taking any steps to address one of the state's worst natural disasters in generations could present political problems for Republicans, who control all levels of state government.
'The one thing that is mandatory is the flood — that's essential,' said Bill Miller, a veteran Austin lobbyist and longtime Texas political observer. 'If they don't do that, it will hurt them politically. And you'd better do it first.'
Flood Response
Mr. Abbott listed four matters related to flooding that he called on lawmakers to consider in the session: improvements to warning systems, relief funding for counties hit by the July floods, better emergency communications and cutting regulations surrounding disaster preparation and recovery.
'We must ensure better preparation for such events in the future,' Mr. Abbott said.
Lawmakers are expected to hold at least two public hearings on the flooding, on July 23 at the Capitol in Austin and then on July 31 in Kerrville, Texas, the epicenter of the flooding in the Hill Country.
'With only 30 days to act, we must make every moment count,' the speaker of the Texas House, Dustin Burrows, said in a statement announcing the creation of a select committee on disaster preparedness and flooding.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the State Senate, has called for the construction of sirens along the Guadalupe River.
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More than 130 people were killed in flash flooding in Central Texas earlier this month.
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Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times
But he also suggested that some of the issues raised by the flooding, like previous government inaction on warning systems, may not be addressed in the special session. He promised that officials would gather the facts and answer the many questions raised after the flooding 'in the coming year, and into the next regular legislative session' in 2027.
U.S. House Redistricting
Few Republican lawmakers, in Austin and in Washington, have expressed enthusiasm for Mr. Trump's aggressive redistricting demand.
'I think we'll get five,' Mr. Trump said on Tuesday when asked how many seats he hoped Republicans would gain from the effort.
Texas has 38 congressional districts, with 25 currently held by Republicans and 12 held by Democrats. One seat, representing a heavily Democratic district in Houston, is vacant; it will be filled in a special election in November.
Maps are supposed to be redrawn around the beginning of each decade, using data from the latest census, which reapportions House seats among the states based on population changes. Mid-decade redistricting is rare, and almost always contentious.
The Trump administration has argued that several districts in Houston and Dallas that are held by Black and Hispanic Democrats are 'unconstitutional racial gerrymanders' and need to be redrawn. That is a charge that Texas Republicans have long rejected when their maps have been challenged by Democrats and minority groups.
In addition, Republicans have been looking at their recent growth in support among Hispanic voters, particularly in the Rio Grande Valley, as an avenue for drawing new district maps that would favor their candidates.
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A long list of agenda items awaits the Texas Legislature when it convenes for the special session.
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Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times
Democrats have been strategizing about how to respond, including the question of whether to walk out of the special session to prevent a quorum. To do that in the 150-member Texas House, 51 of the 62 Democrats would have to join in.
A walkout could come at a heavy cost for the participants. After the tactic was used in 2021, Texas Republicans have tried to deter future walkouts by adopting rules in the State House that include $500-a-day fines for each lawmaker who stays away.
Beyond Texas, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, is threatening to have his state's House district lines redrawn to favor his party if Texas Republicans succeed in redrawing theirs. (For now, that might be bluster, since California's laws and state constitution make such a move a much taller order than it is in Texas.)
The clock is working against Republicans. The Dec. 8 deadline for filing to get on the March 2026 primary ballot is fast approaching, and any new maps adopted during the special session would probably be challenged in court. That could complicate whether they would take effect in time for the midterm elections in 2026.
The Governor's Other Desires
Mr. Abbott put a long list of other items in his call for the special session, most of them measures that failed to become law during the regular session.
The most contentious of them is a bill to regulate the industry that produces intoxicating hemp products like gummies, drinks and other consumable items that deliver a high similar to that from marijuana.
Mr. Patrick, the state's powerful lieutenant governor, muscled a total ban on such products through the Legislature late in the regular session, only to see Mr. Abbott veto the measure. The governor said that lawmakers should consider regulating the products instead of banning them, and should make it a crime to sell hemp intoxicants to people under the age of 21. Currently there are no age restrictions on the products in Texas.
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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick defending the THC ban at news conference in May.
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Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times
Mr. Abbott also wants the Legislature to take up measures favored by activist Republicans, including a proposed ban on local governments hiring lobbyists to advocate for their interests at the State Capitol; a bill to give the state attorney general new powers to prosecute violations of election law; and new legislation restricting abortion, in a state that already has a near-total ban.
Anti-abortion activists urged lawmakers to pass a bill that would try to stop mail-order abortion pills from being used in Texas.
'They only have 30 days to do it,' said John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life.