Texas Senate’s General Investigating Committee on the July 2025 Flooding Events will meet concurrently with its House counterpart to consider a report on last summer’s deadly Hill Country floods — no public testimony, and the panel may go behind closed doors.
When: 10:00 AM, Thursday, June 18, 2026
Where: Room E2.016, Capitol Extension, Austin
Chair: Sen. Pete Flores, R–Pleasanton (SD-24)
Vice Chair: Sen. Charles Perry, R–Lubbock (SD-28)
Format: Joint meeting with the House General Investigating Committee on the July 2025 Flooding Events to consider a report; no public testimony; executive session possible
Live video: senate.texas.gov/av-live.php
Submit comments online: senate.texas.gov/GICcomment/
By Texas Dispatch · Committee Preview
The Texas Senate’s General Investigating Committee on the July 2025 Flooding Events will gavel in at 10 a.m. Thursday and meet with its House committee counterpart to consider a report on last summer’s floods, a step that could mark the culmination of the Legislature’s months-long inquiry into the catastrophic flooding that struck the Texas Hill Country last summer. According to the official notice, no public testimony will be taken.
The select committee is chaired by Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, with Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, as vice chair. It was created to examine the warning, emergency-response and recovery efforts surrounding the floods that swept the Guadalupe River basin and surrounding Hill Country counties over the July 4 weekend in 2025, among the deadliest natural disasters in recent Texas history.
Thursday’s meeting follows two earlier joint hearings the Senate and House investigating panels held together on April 27 and April 28, 2026, at which members took testimony on the events and the official response.
The notice frames Thursday’s business narrowly: the committee “will meet concurrently with the House General Investigating Committee on the July 2025 Flooding Events to consider a report.” Joint consideration of a report by the two chambers’ investigating committees is procedurally unusual and signals that members may be moving from fact-gathering toward formal findings. The notice does not list bills or name witnesses, consistent with a working session rather than a public hearing.
The notice also states that the committee “may enter into an executive session to consider any matter authorized to be considered in an executive session under Subchapter B, Chapter 301, Government Code, or the committee rules.”
General investigating committees hold broad subpoena and investigative authority under state law, and that authority can include closed deliberations. As a result, portions of Thursday’s proceedings may not be open to the public or carried on the live broadcast.
Because this is an interim select-committee meeting rather than a standing-committee hearing in session, the panel will not vote on legislation. Any recommendations the committee adopts would inform legislation that could be filed when the 90th Legislature convenes in January 2027. Members of the public may submit written comments and attachments through the committee’s online portal at senate.texas.gov/GICcomment/.
Committee members
- Sen. Pete Flores, R–Pleasanton (SD-24) — Chair
- Sen. Charles Perry, R–Lubbock (SD-28) — Vice Chair
- Sen. Bryan Hughes, R–Mineola (SD-1)
- Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R–Brenham (SD-18)
- Sen. José Menéndez, D–San Antonio (SD-26)