The newly created Senate and House General Investigating Committees will be looking over a Texas agency’s shoulder as they implement youth camp requirements.
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas lawmakers will be looking over a state agency’s shoulder to make sure youth camps are safe in the aftermath of July’s devastating Hill Country floods.
Texas lawmakers already passed SB 1 and HB 1 to add a list of new requirements to Texas youth camps after 27 young girls died at Camp Mystic in the July 4 flooding. The Texas Legislature already ended its special session in September, meaning lawmakers are back in their districts.
But for at least 10 of those legislators, the job isn’t over yet.
On Monday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced new the new “Senate and House General Investigating Committees on the July 2025 Flooding Events.” Five Texas senators and five Texas House representatives have been selected for the two committees.
“This committee’s task is to examine the facts and circumstances surrounding the July flooding, including actions taken at youth summer camps,” Patrick said in a press release.
Of course, lawmakers cannot make laws when the Legislature is not in session, and the Texas Department of State Health Services would be the agency responsible for making sure youth camp rules are followed. On Wednesday, KENS 5 spoke to District 26 Sen. José Menéndez, who is on the senate’s investigating committee, to find out what they will be doing.
“Some of the concerns we have as lawmakers is they (they camps) may try to find a way around these things,” Menéndez said. “We will be prepared if we see any gaps.”
Menéndez said the committee is partially a way to ensure that inspectors don’t cut youth camps any slack when enforcing new rules.
“Keeping kids safe is the bottom line,” Menéndez said. “If a storm comes in the middle of the night, what systems do they have in place?”
The new rules say youth camps may not have cabins in floodplains (with a narrow exception). Emergency plans must name muster zones – the place campers must go during an emergency – and cover emergencies involving lost campers, fires, or severe injury, illness or death.
Camps must keep operable weather-alert radios, have an emergency warning system that can alert all occupants, have two internet connections and have a person designated as a camp emergency preparedness coordinator.
Some camp owners have complained the new rules will put them out of business. At the same time, Camp Mystic has already announced it will open a non-damaged area of their camp next year.
Both factors have state leaders wanting to keep a close eye on how camps are complying with regulations. The committees will allow lawmakers to check in on that progress.
“We can ask health and human services, ‘What’s going on? Have they addressed this and that?'” Menéndez said. “We need to step up and make sure we hold people accountable.”
The Monday press release from Patrick also specifically stated that the committee will call for Camp Mystic representatives to testify.
“The families who lost their precious daughters deserve answers, as do all Texans, on exactly what happened on July 4th. 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,” Patrick said.
Camp Mystic representatives sent the following response after the committees were announced:
“We look forward to working with the Senate and House General Investigating Committees on the July 2025 flooding events and helping them and the public more fully understand the facts of what happened. We are grateful to Lt. Gov. Patrick and Speaker Burrows for their continued leadership and their efforts to ensure that tragic losses such as those that occurred on July 4 will never happen again.”
Menéndez said the chair person of each committee will decide when they first meet. KENS 5 contacted the office of State Sen. Pete Flores, who will chair the senate-side committee. Flores’s office didn’t have any idea when the committees will begin.