After the historic July 4 flooding and catastrophic loss of life, he announced a revised session agenda that prioritizes emergency preparedness and many other issues.

The session will convene at noon July 21 and last for 30 days with the possibility of being extended by another 30 days.

In a two-page proclamation, Abbott listed 18 legislative priorities. The first four are in direct response to the July 4 flash flood that caused catastrophic loss of life in the Texas Hill Country.

The first legislative proposal would create a flood warning system to improve early warning systems and other preparedness infrastructure in flood-prone areas statewide. 

The second would create flood emergency communications to strengthen them and other response infrastructure in flood-prone areas statewide.

The third would appropriate relief and recovery funding to assist Hill Country flood victims, including allocating local match funding for jurisdictions eligible for FEMA public assistance.

The fourth would create a natural disaster preparation and recovery plan, including evaluating and streamlining rules and regulations to speed preparedness for and recovery from natural disasters.

The priorities were added after federal and state warnings were issued ahead of massive storms but Kerr County officials didn’t issue warnings or evacuation orders enabling residents and vacationers to move to higher ground or evacuate, The Center Square reported. Travis County residents had similar complaints. Survivors argue had they been warned they would have evacuated.

As of Thursday morning, 119 are confirmed dead in six counties and approximately 173 are confirmed missing in Kerr, Travis, Burnet and Williamson counties. Assuming all confirmed missing are recovered as deceased, the total number of deceased would reach nearly 300, the greatest number of people to die from a natural disaster in Texas in modern history.

By comparison, 68 people died from Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area in 2017 from a historic 100-year flood event. The greatest loss of life in Texas was an estimated 8,000 people in the 1900 storm that devastated Galveston.

Other agenda items include some that lawmakers requested be added. Many are Republican Party of Texas legislative priorities.

They include eliminating the STAAR test and “replacing it with effective tools to assess student progress and ensure school district accountability;” reducing property taxes, after the legislature was criticized for not implementing meaningful property tax relief during the regular session; and another anti-abortion bill to protect “unborn children and their mothers from the harm of abortion.” It’s unclear if this refers to banning abortion pills, a request made by many lawmakers, The Center Square reported.

Abbott also added banning taxpayer-funded lobbying, including “the use of tax dollars to hire lobbyists and payment of tax dollars to associations that lobby the Legislature;” and proposed a constitutional amendment to allow the attorney general to prosecute state election crimes.

Several agenda items relate to bills Abbott vetoed.

This includes SB 3, a THC ban the legislature passed with bipartisan support, which was first on Abbott’s initial list for the special session agenda. Abbott’s proposal would legalize marijuana, making “it a crime to provide hemp-derived products to children under 21 years of age,” and would “comprehensively regulate hemp-derived products, including limiting potency, restricting synthetically modified compounds, and establishing enforcement mechanisms, all without banning a lawful agricultural commodity.”

The legislature overwhelmingly opposes legalizing marijuana. The Republican Party of Texas’ platform expressly prohibits legalization of drugs, including marijuana. One of Abbott’s claims for vetoing the bill was rejected by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, The Center Square reported.

After vetoing SB 1278, Abbott proposed protections for human trafficking victims from criminal liability for non-violent acts resulting from their trafficking. After vetoing SB 648, he proposed legislation strengthening protections against identity theft and deed fraud. After vetoing SB 1253, he proposed legislation reducing fees for builders that include water conservation and efficiency measures in their plans. After vetoing SB 2878, he proposed legislation related to state’s judicial administration.

He also added redistricting after the Trump administration urged Republican governors to do so. Abbott proposed revising Texas’ congressional redistricting plan due to “constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

Other agenda items include a measure to protect law enforcement officers from public disclosure of unsubstantiated complaints in personnel files and a measure to protect women’s privacy in sex-segregated spaces.