Gov. Abbott orders special session on Hill Country flooding, redistricting, THC and unfinished GOP priorities

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Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday unveiled a jam-packed agenda for the upcoming special legislative session, calling on legislators to redraw the state’s congressional maps and address several unfinished conservative priorities from earlier this year.

The governor, who controls the agenda for overtime legislative sessions, also included four items related to the deadly Hill Country floods over the July Fourth weekend, directing lawmakers to look at flood warning systems, emergency communications, natural disaster preparation and relief funding for the impacted areas.

The flooding has killed more than 100 people, with more than 160 still missing.

The call includes legislation to redraw the state’s congressional districts — which the Trump administration has reportedly been pressuring state GOP leaders to do. Republicans in Texas’ congressional delegation have expressed unease about the idea, worrying it could jeopardize control of their current districts.

As expected, Abbott’s agenda for the session — scheduled to start July 21 — includes legislation to more firmly regulate THC products, such as new restrictions to keep them from children. Abbott had previously announced plans to take up the issue after he vetoed an outright THC ban that had been championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

The ban on consumable hemp products that contained any THC passed the Senate but divided the Republican majority in the House, with some backing a proposal to more aggressively regulate these products instead. In the end, the total ban passed the chamber with scant GOP opposition. Abbott vetoed the bill, saying it would not have survived “valid constitutional challenges.”

A majority of Texans oppose a ban, according to a June statewide poll.

Abbott also included several high-profile and controversial conservative priorities that didn’t pass during the regular session, including proposals to ban cities and counties from hiring lobbyists to advocate for them in Austin; require people to use bathrooms that align with the sex they were assigned at birth; and crack down on the manufacturing and distribution of abortion pills.

More than 40 Republican lawmakers, including Patrick, signed onto a letter to Abbott, asking him to include the abortion pill proposal on the special session agenda. Senate Bill 2880, considered the most wide-ranging legislation to crackdown on abortion pills in the U.S., passed the Senate but stalled in a House committee.

The so-called “bathroom bill” similarly failed to make it out of a House committee.

Abbott is asking lawmakers to tackle an agenda with 18 items in roughly 30 days that includes politically-supercharged proposals surrounding abortion, redistricting and the authority of the attorney general’s office to prosecute election crimes, as well as complicated ones like another reduction in property taxes.

State lawmakers meet every other year. They adjourned their regular session in early June.

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