Issue Position: Emergency Preparedness

Issue Position

House Bill 5 directs the Texas Department of Emergency Management to create a catastrophic debris management plan to improve debris removal for political subdivisions and also creates the Wet Debris Study Group and the Work Group on Local Restrictions That Impede Disaster Recovery Efforts to study the best practices and common hindrances to the removal of debris following a disaster. Passing this legislation allows local communities to respond quicker to disasters and prepares the state for future debris crises. Through the passage of House Bill 6, a Disaster Recovery Task Force has been created within the Texas Department of Emergency Management to assist individuals with specialized assistance and communities with recovery and resiliency planning to speed up recovery. Following Hurricane Harvey, we learned recovery has been identified as the weakest phase of the emergency management cycle in Texas, and House Bill 6 looks to strengthen recovery functions and better utilize the resources available to this state.

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