Texas
Public Health Emergency Acts Streamline Texas Disaster Response
The Public Health Emergency declared for Texas by US health authorities this month will cut through bureaucratic hurdles to lifesaving care, but disaster prevention efforts are a more efficient use of federal dollars, scholars of health and environmental law said.
Southeast Texas, including Houston, faced back-to-back disasters earlier this month after Hurricane Beryl was followed closely by a powerful heat wave. The storm left more than one million residents sweltering without electricity or air conditioning as heat indexes surpassed 100 degrees, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The sequence of extreme weather was deadly: 15 deaths in Harris County, which includes Houston, had been attributed to Hurricane Beryl as of July 22, local officials said. Seven of those deaths were caused by heat amid power outages due to the storm.
“Often the more serious problems are either the second or the third disaster,” said Robert Verchick, a professor of disaster and climate change law at Loyola University New Orleans and a former Environmental Protection Agency official in the Obama administration. “It’s like a row of dominoes, and not having electricity for a week is a serious public health problem.”
The public health emergency for Texas, declared by the HHS on July 12, followed a major disaster declaration from President Joe Biden that unlocked federal resources to aid recovery efforts.
“The combination of severe heat and limited access to electricity is dangerous, especially for vulnerable populations and those relying on electricity-dependent durable medical equipment and certain healthcare services,” Dawn O’Connell, HHS’ assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said in a statement announcing the agency’s emergency declaration.
Cutting Red Tape
While a major disaster declaration is more “infrastructure oriented,” the public health emergency is focused on “dealing with the people hurt from the storm and dealing with the people hurt from the extreme heat,” said Jean Su, senior attorney and energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The emergency declaration is essentially a tool to cut through regulatory red tape that would impede the ability of healthcare providers to respond quickly during a disaster, said Dr. David Lakey, vice chancellor for health affairs and chief medical officer for the University of Texas System.
“There’s a lot of reporting and deadlines and those types of things that get in the way of a hospital being able to respond,” said Lakey, a former commissioner of the state’s health department. “The emergency just takes some of that bureaucratic work off the table for a while for them to be able to concentrate on caring for these individuals.”
Dialysis patients, for example, may have a care provider that’s unable to operate after the hurricane, Lakey said. The emergency declaration would allow them to quickly receive treatment elsewhere, and also to replace supplies they may have lost in the storm, he said.
The emergency declaration unlocks emergency funds and allows HHS to take steps including modifying certain privacy and telemedicine requirements, adjusting Medicare reimbursements, deploying additional personnel, and more.
But Verchick urged officials to invest more resources in preparing for disasters ahead of time, rather than solely reacting once they happen.
“Of course responding to disasters is extremely important, but it’s more important to take actions that prevent the harms to begin with,” he said. “That is money that goes so much further in the prevention stage than it does in the recovery stage.”
Additional efforts to protect against extreme heat would be particularly helpful in predominantly Black and Latino communities, Verchick said. Those places often face disproportionate harm from high temperatures because of policies that have funneled mitigation resources toward wealthier and whiter areas.
The Texas public health emergency is the first such declaration HHS has made this year, though it has twice renewed public health emergencies for wildfire recovery in Hawaii and for the opioid epidemic nationwide. The agency declared five public health emergencies in 2023.
Apple has criticized a Texas bill mandating age verification for app store users, insisting that “better proposals” exist to protect children online.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law on Tuesday, requiring Apple and Google to verify the ages of app store users and obtain parental consent for minors to download apps or make in-app purchases.
Why It Matters
Over 80 percent of Americans support parental consent for minors who want to create a social media account, according to a 2023 Pew Research poll, and more than 70 percent back age verification before use of social media.
In June 2024, Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, who had regularly cautioned that excessive social media use among adolescents was linked to a higher risk of anxiety, depression, and body image issues, urged Congress to mandate warning labels on such platforms, alerting users to the potential mental health risks associated with them.
What To Know
Apple and Google, which own the two largest app stores in the U.S, had opposed the bill before it was signed, arguing that the law would require widespread data collection, even from Texans downloading non-sensitive apps that concern the weather or sports scores.
“If enacted, app marketplaces will be required to collect and keep sensitive personal identifying information for every Texan who wants to download an app, even if it’s an app that simply provides weather updates or sports scores,” Apple said in an official statement, according to Reuters.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, had argued that implementing age restrictions should occur at the app store level instead of in each app.
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Apple and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, have recommended alternative solutions, such as providing age-range data only to apps that pose risks, rather than to every app accessed by a user.
Texas follows Utah, which passed a similar law earlier this year. At the federal level, the proposed Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) advanced in the U.S. Senate but has stalled in the House.
Florida has also taken action against large tech companies over children accessing their sites, with the state suing Snapchat for failing to prevent kids under 13 from accessing harmful content.
What People Are Saying
Apple said in a statement: “If enacted, app marketplaces will be required to collect and keep sensitive personal identifying information for every Texan who wants to download an app, even if it’s an app that simply provides weather updates or sports scores.”
In 2024, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a U.S. Senate hearing that parents should not “have to upload an ID or proof they are a parent in every single app that their children use. The easier place to do this is in the app stores themselves.”
Casey Stefanski, Executive Director, Digital Childhood Alliance, said: “The problem is that self-regulation in the digital marketplace has failed, where app stores have just prioritized the profit over safety and rights of children and families.”
What Happens Next
The Texas law will take effect on January 1, 2026. Another pending Texas bill would prohibit social media usage by anyone under 18, though it has not yet passed the state legislature.
Texas
Texas Nears Landmark Legislation on App Store Age Verification, Spotlighting National Tech Regulation Debate | PYMNTS.com
Texas is poised to pass a groundbreaking law requiring app store operators, including tech giants Apple and Google, to verify the ages of users and secure parental consent for minors, a move that could reshape how young people access digital content. According to Reuters, Senate Bill 2420 has cleared both chambers of the Texas legislature with overwhelming support and now awaits Governor Greg Abbott’s signature.
The legislation mandates that app marketplaces confirm the age of users accessing their platforms. If a user is under 18, the bill would require parental approval before apps can be downloaded or in-app purchases made. As Reuters notes, this makes Texas the latest—and largest—U.S. state to wade into the national debate on smartphone regulation for children, following similar action in Utah earlier this year.
While the bill targets app distribution, it has sparked broader concerns within the tech industry, particularly among the companies tasked with enforcing its provisions. Apple and Google have criticized the proposed law, arguing that it would require the collection of personal data even for innocuous apps, such as those offering weather updates or sports scores. “If enacted, app marketplaces will be required to collect and keep sensitive personal identifying information for every Texan who wants to download an app,” Apple said in a statement.
According to Reuters, both tech companies have floated alternative solutions that would limit data sharing only to applications that explicitly require age-based restrictions. Kareem Ghanem, a senior director at Google, acknowledged a role for legislation but emphasized the need for thoughtful implementation. “It’s just got to be done in the right way,” Ghanem told Reuters, adding that enforcement should also target social media platforms like those owned by Meta, which have faced increased scrutiny for their impact on minors.
Read more: Fortnite Returns to Apple’s U.S. App Store After Five-Year Ban
Indeed, concern over the mental health effects of social media on youth has escalated in recent years. Per Reuters, more than 40 U.S. states have filed lawsuits against Meta, and the U.S. Surgeon General has issued advisories warning about the risks posed to children’s well-being. Globally, countries like Australia and Norway are also contemplating or have enacted legislation banning social media access for younger users.
The Texas bill aligns with a broader public sentiment in favor of stronger child online protections. A 2023 Pew Research Center poll found that 81% of Americans support requiring parental consent for children to open social media accounts, while 71% endorse mandatory age verification for access.
Supporters of the Texas legislation argue that the onus should fall on app stores to manage age restrictions. “The problem is that self-regulation in the digital marketplace has failed, where app stores have just prioritized the profit over safety and rights of children and families,” said Casey Stefanski, executive director of the Digital Childhood Alliance, in a statement to Reuters.
Notably, another proposal still under consideration in the Texas legislature would ban social media usage for anyone under 18, a move that, if passed, could further intensify the national conversation around youth internet access and digital responsibility.
Source: Reuters
The Texas Longhorns will be the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, one of a record 13 SEC teams to be selected to the 64-team field.
The tournament opens Friday with 16 double-elimination regionals. Winners advance to eight best-of-three super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha beginning June 13.
In their first year in the SEC, Texas opened 38-5 overall and 19-2 in conference play. The Longhorns appeared to be a lock for the No. 1 seed before finishing 5-7 with a loss to Tennessee in its conference tournament opener.
Vanderbilt won eight straight games and 13 of its past 16 to earn the No. 1 seed for the second time, and first since 2007. The Commodores are in the tournament for the 19th straight time for the longest active streak.
The national seeds following Vanderbilt (42-16) and Texas (42-12) are Arkansas (43-13), Auburn (38-18), North Carolina (42-12), LSU (43-14), Georgia (42-15) and Oregon State (41-12-1). Those eight teams would be in line to host super regionals if they win their regionals.
Seeds Nos. 9 through 16: Florida State (38-14), Mississippi (40-19), Clemson (44-16), Oregon (42-14), Coastal Carolina (48-11), Tennessee (43-16), UCLA (42-16) and Southern Mississippi (44-14).
The last four teams to get at-large bids, in alphabetical order, were Arizona State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Southern California.
The first four teams left out were Southeastern Louisiana, Troy, UConn and Virginia.
The SEC’s 13 teams in the tournament are two more than its record 11 that made it in 2024.
The Atlantic Coast Conference has nine teams in the field followed by the Big 12 with eight and the Big Ten with four. The American Athletic, Big West, Conference USA and Sun Belt all have two teams in the tournament.
TCU and Oklahoma both made the field of 64 as the second-seed in the Corvallis and Chapel Hill regionals, respectively. Oklahoma State snuck in as one of the last four at-large bids, earning a 3-seed in the Athens regional.
Been there, done that
Texas is in the tournament for a record 64th time. Miami, which lost six of its past seven games, is making its 50th appearance. Florida State will be a regional host for a Division I-record 37th time.
The longest active streaks behind Vanderbilt belong to Florida (17), LSU (13), Oklahoma State (12) and Dallas Baptist (11).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Find more Texas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
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