Texas House Public Health Committee to Examine Social Media, Infant Mortality, AI and Disease Threats

The Texas House Committee on Public Health will gavel in at 9 a.m. Aug. 20 to hear invited testimony on four interim charges that run from social media’s effects on young Texans’ mental health to infant mortality, artificial intelligence in medicine and the state’s readiness for communicable-disease threats.

The hearing is invited testimony only, but Texas residents can submit written comments on all four charges through the House comment portal until adjournment, according to the hearing notice.

Chaired by Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R–New Boston, with Rep. Liz Campos, D–San Antonio, as vice chair, the 13-member panel — seven Republicans and six Democrats — meets in Room E2.030 of the Capitol Extension. The agenda packs four of the most closely watched health files of the interim into a single morning, and what members hear will feed the interim report that shapes health legislation in the 90th Legislature.

The first charge directs the committee to study the impact of social media platforms and AI technologies on the mental health, cognitive development and behavioral well-being of minors. The Legislature’s recent attempts to regulate that space have stalled in Austin or in court: House Bill 186, which would have barred Texans under 18 from social media, cleared the House in 2025 but died after missing a key Senate deadline; Senate Bill 2420, the App Store Accountability Act, was signed into law but blocked by a federal judge in December before its January effective date; and the central content-monitoring provision of the 2023 SCOPE Act, House Bill 18, remains enjoined in CCIA and NetChoice’s First Amendment challenge.

The infant mortality charge asks members to weigh evidence-based prevention strategies — the notice names Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, sudden unexpected infant death and complications from preterm birth and low birthweight — and recommend ways to reduce preventable deaths. Texas recorded 5.8 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2023, per federal data, and the March of Dimes’ latest report card puts the state’s preterm birth rate at 11.1 percent — 40th of 52 U.S. jurisdictions ranked, with 43,344 babies born preterm in 2024.

The AI charge lands as two 2025 laws come online. House Bill 149, the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act, took effect Jan. 1 with statewide rules for AI systems, a new state AI council and a regulatory sandbox. Its companion, Senate Bill 1188, in force since September 2025, requires electronic health records to be stored in the United States and lets practitioners use AI in diagnosis only if they review its output and tell patients it was used. The committee is charged with weighing AI’s promise for access, quality and efficiency against risks to patient safety and privacy.

The final charge — a review of communicable-disease data, emerging threats, chronic disease and substance-use interventions — follows the West Texas measles outbreak that state health officials declared over in August 2025 after 762 confirmed cases, 99 hospitalizations and the deaths of two school-aged children. More than 94 percent of cases were in people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown, according to the Department of State Health Services.

Because this is an interim hearing, the committee will take no votes on legislation. Its findings will feed the interim report and any bills members carry into the 90th Legislature, which convenes in January 2027.

Meeting at a glance

Committee members

• Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R–New Boston (HD-1) — Chair
• Rep. Liz Campos, D–San Antonio (HD-119) — Vice Chair
• Rep. John H. Bucy III, D–Austin (HD-136)
• Rep. Nicole Collier, D–Fort Worth (HD-95)
• Rep. Charles Cunningham, R–Kingwood (HD-127)
• Rep. James B. Frank, R–Wichita Falls (HD-69)
• Rep. Ann Johnson, D–Houston (HD-134)
• Rep. Jolanda Jones, D–Houston (HD-147)
• Rep. Mike Olcott, R–Aledo (HD-60)
• Rep. Katrina Pierson, R–Rockwall (HD-33)
• Rep. Mike Schofield, R–Katy (HD-132)
• Rep. Joanne W. Shofner, R–Nacogdoches (HD-11)
• Rep. Lauren A. Simmons, D–Houston (HD-146)