Bill would require certain airports, military sites to provide emergency response maps to first responders

House Bill 43 41 would mandate that certain critical infrastructure facilities provide standardized emergency response maps to appropriate public safety agencies, including building layouts, utility shutoffs and locations of safety equipment.

Sponsor testimony said first responders often arrive at unfamiliar scenes and need detailed maps to navigate and manage life-or-death emergencies. The bill as discussed would apply only to public or private airports depicted on current FAA aeronautical charts and to military installations owned or operated by the state or another governmental entity.

The bill creates a grant program to assist covered facilities in producing the maps. Committee discussion noted that the Department of Public Safety did not have statutory authority to administer the grants, so responsibility for the grant program was transferred to the Criminal Justice Division in the Office of the Governor in the committee substitute.

Jared Vanden Heuvel, director of public safety solutions at the Texas Department of Public Safety (resource witness), said DPS does not typically administer grants and that moving the program to the governor’s grant section "makes sense." No opposition testimony was offered. The committee left the bill pending and later reported the committee substitute favorably to the full Senate by unanimous consent.