Numerous proposals directly and indirectly related to health operations during disasters will be before House and Senate committees in the weeks to come. Legislators from both parties have been filing the bills in the face of recommendations from a special House panel on Hurricane Ike that held public hearings around the affected region.
“I think we have become aware of the fact that when disaster strikes, we’re all operating from the same playbook,” said Republican Sen. Jane Nelson of Flower Mound, sponsor of some of the legislation.
Many of these bills are procedural, requiring state agencies, hospitals and individuals to better establish exactly what steps they should take during a disaster. Most have a clause that would allow the laws, if enacted with a two-thirds majority of the Legislature, to take effect immediately. Hurricane season begins June 1.
Some bills attempt to address what hospitals said was an unexpected strain from the sheer number of patients who streamed into Texas hospitals before the Sept. 13 storm.
