Efforts to overhaul local emergency response to disasters failed after the Texas Senate concluded its business early Thursday without taking up the House’s version of a bill that would have mandated new training and licensing requirements.
Senate Bill 2 would have created license requirements for local emergency coordinators, initiated registration requirements for disaster volunteers and established a mass-casualty disaster training program for certain justices of the peace. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the upper chamber, did not state on the Senate floor why the bill was not taken up before the chamber adjourned Thursday morning.
SB 2 was one of several bills aimed at remedying problems made evident during the July 4 floods, in which more than 130 people were killed and dozens of homes and businesses were destroyed. The Legislature passed House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1 on Wednesday night, which would create new requirements and restrictions for camps operating in or near floodplains. SB 2 had already received initial approval from the Senate in August, but underwent changes in the House that the two chambers disagreed on.
Representatives in the House added amendments that allowed counties to be reimbursed by the state comptroller’s office for helicopter use during certain disasters and give emergency coordinators more input on proposals for transmission lines built in floodplains. Lawmakers from both chambers needed to agree on a new, final version, or have the Senate agree to the House changes before the bill could be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott for signing.
But they didn’t. It just died on the vine in the Senate. Someone should ask Dan Patrick why. The Republicans gave themselves plenty of goodies this session. They did pass some flood-related bills, but not all of them. In every case, it was for lack of action in the Senate. Again, someone should ask Dan Patrick why.
The Texas Legislature ended another legislative overtime round without banning or further regulating most THC products after a monthslong fight between lawmakers to rein in the exploding hemp industry.
The Texas House gaveled out of the second special session late Wednesday, leaving behind Senate Bill 6, which would have broadly banned consumable hemp products with any “detectable amount of any cannabinoid.” Only those with cannabidiol or cannabigerol, which are both non-psychoactive, would have stayed legal.
That means most forms of consumable hemp-derived products stay legal in Texas. There also remains no age limit on who can purchase these goods, which come in the form of gummies, smokeable flowers and drinks. Yet it is now illegal to sell — but not possess — THC vape pens under a separate law, passed earlier this year, that went into effect Monday.
The House’s move followed a last-minute effort earlier in the day between top Republicans to hash out a compromise, after SB 6 sat without a hearing for two weeks in a House committee.
Earlier in the night, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick had announced that the Senate would wrap up the second special session without any new THC restrictions or ban in a post on X. Patrick said he, Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows were not able to reach an agreement despite “long discussions.”
“My position remains unchanged; the Senate and I are for a total THC ban,” he said, adding that the Senate will adjourn after finalizing its remaining flood bills.
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A full ban cleared the Senate both special sessions this summer but stalled in the House, where it became clear that it lacked enough votes to pass. During the regular session, some House members said they voted for a full THC prohibition under the impression that their unrelated bills would die in the Senate if they failed to get in line.
“We looked hard for that common ground and just never could find it,” Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston and the ban’s author, said Tuesday afternoon before the last-ditch negotiations began. “We just don’t see that we can get anything off the House floor.”
Kyle Bingham, a farmer in the South Plains who also serves as vice president of the National Hemp Growers Association, said it has been frustrating to navigate the legislative uncertainty over the past few months. Instead of growing hemp, he said he has been focusing on other crops such as wheat and cotton.
“It’s already difficult to operate in this emerging industry,” he said, “and this is just one more layer of how difficult it is to do business.”
Still, Bingham and Cabrera said that there could be improved regulations such as age restrictions — even as they oppose a full ban. In particular, Cabrera said the Legislature should have focused on the bill raising the age limit instead and that it was disappointing that lawmakers couldn’t reach this “simple fix.”
“But it is a sigh of relief,” she said after learning about Patrick’s announcement.
Katharine Neill Harris, drug policy fellow for Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, similarly said it’s worth another session to address specific issues such as the sale and marketing of THC products towards minors — separate from a blanket ban.
“If you ban them, they become truly unregulated because they go to the illicit market,” she said. “And we know that there are no regulations for illicit drugs.”
This is basically what I expected would happen. Dan Patrick was never going to budge and was willing to leave the status quo in place, however distasteful he considered it to be, on the grounds that the badness of the status quo (at least from his perspective) would eventually force people to his side. He’s not going to get that – people do want THC to be legal in this state – but that’s how I believe he sees it. If you would prefer for there to be sensible regulation of THC products, such as a ban on the sale and marketing of said products towards minors, you have to vote out Dan Patrick next year. Funny how often I have to say something like that about some very popular things.