{"id":358159,"date":"2026-07-02T03:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/358159\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T03:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:35:08","slug":"texas-lawmakers-say-changes-to-camp-safety-laws-likely-in-next-legislative-session-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/358159\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas lawmakers say changes to camp safety laws likely in next legislative session"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 One year after the floods that devastated parts of Central Texas<\/a> and the Hill Country and killed 139 people, lawmakers are preparing to take up more camp safety and disaster preparedness legislation<\/a> when they return to Austin in January.<\/p>\n

Legislators worked through two special sessions in the months following the disaster to hear from state and local leaders and those impacted directly by the tragedy, before ultimately passing a slate of laws<\/a> concerning camp safety and disaster preparedness.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 3<\/a>, spearheaded by State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), set requirements for outdoor flood warning sirens in areas identified by the Texas Water Development Board as prone to flooding. <\/p>\n

Bettencourt said implementation of the act is underway along the Upper Guadalupe River.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to make every watershed up in the Edwards Plateau safer, because these are all effectively flash flood alley. And wherever they install those sirens, it will give people, worst case, 20 minutes to get out of the way of a flood,” Bettencourt said. “I think they’re going to be a big success and they will save lives.”<\/p>\n

The Youth CAMPER Act, authored by State Rep. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo), and the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act, authored by State Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), were designed to add safety protections for children at youth camps across the state. The laws create stricter regulations about where camper cabins can be placed along floodplains, create new emergency response requirements and mandate emergency drills.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Texas reaches deal allowing summer camps to open despite fiber optic internet requirement<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite nearly unanimously passing through the legislature, the response to the camp safety legislation, however, has been more nuanced<\/a>. Now, lawmakers are looking to make corrections to some aspects of the laws.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Wes Virdell (R-Brady) has been critical<\/a> of the camp safety bills since their passage. <\/p>\n

“I think a lot of legislators at the time maybe felt pressure to vote for a bad bill, and I think that since then, they have realized the consequences of that legislation and I think they’ll be more willing to address those issues,” Virdell said.<\/p>\n

One of the concerns raised by camp operators since the enactment of the laws is the fiberoptic internet access requirement<\/a>. Initially added as a way to ensure access to emergency communications, camps argued the requirement was impossible to implement before the 2026 camping season.<\/p>\n

Virdell said lawmakers need to expand the options for camps with limited access to fiber optic technology.<\/p>\n

“We need to change what kind of broadband is required,” he said. “Get rid of the fiber optic requirement. Allow satellite communications, such as Starlink, to be there to do that.”<\/p>\n

Bettencourt, who supported the bills during the special session, acknowledged there are conversations already taking place about cleaning up some parts of the camp safety laws.<\/p>\n

“The problem is that in Texas, being as big as we are, people could be 30 miles away from the nearest fiber junction. So there was no way that people were going to be able to get their plans approved,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Department of State Health Services agreed to temporarily waive<\/a> the requirement to allow camps to remain open during the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Still, DSHS data reviewed by CBS Austin shows many youth camps listed as active at the end of 2025 are no longer on the state’s youth camp roster. It included 378 camps in December. This month, however, just 305 camps are listed. <\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Camp Mystic withdraws application for summer 2026 camp license<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the camps missing from the list is Camp Mystic, where 25 campers and two counselors died<\/a> during the flooding along the Guadalupe River. Camp officials withdrew the camp’s license application<\/a> this year following pushback from the families of victims, as well as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.<\/p>\n

The 90th Legislative Session in Texas is set to convene in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 One year after the floods that devastated parts of Central Texas and the Hill Country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-358159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}