Texas lawmakers begin review of catastrophic floods that killed at least 135
State and county emergency response officials are scheduled to testify on Wednesday, but no officials from Kerr County, the area most hard-hit by the floods, are expected to appear.
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Lawmakers have filed bills to improve early warning systems and emergency communications and to provide relief funding. Kerr County, where 27 campers and counselors, most of them children, were killed at Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp, does not have a warning system along the river after several missed opportunities by state and local agencies to finance one.
Three people remain missing. At one point, county officials said more than 170 people were unaccounted for.
Lawmakers are scheduled to visit Kerrville on July 31 to hear from residents.
Democrats have left open the possibility of filibusters or walking out in the coming weeks to block the proposed congressional map redraw. On Monday, most of the party's members in the House signed a letter to the speaker stating that they would not engage in any work before addressing flood relief.
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But Democrats have few paths to resistance as the minority party in both chambers. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has threatened to arrest those who attempt to walk out on top of the $500 a day fines lawmakers face for breaking a quorum.
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