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A special Texas Senate committee is meeting at 9 a.m. Central on Tuesday in response to the Uvalde school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. The agenda for the first meeting says members will discuss school safety, police training and social media.
Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, is expected to testify — his first public statements on the shooting since late May, when he cast blame at Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo for not giving orders sooner to breach the classrooms the gunman was inside.
In addition to McCraw, the list of witnesses testifying include Cullen Grissom, deputy chief at the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement; John Curnutt, assistant director at the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center; Mike Morath, Texas Education Agency commissioner; and a number of local police chiefs and sheriffs.
Gov. Greg Abbott called on lawmakers to make legislative recommendations in response to the the May mass shooting. The committee comprises eight Republicans and three Democrats. It notably leaves out state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat who represents the area and who has been outspoken in his calls for the Legislature to pass gun control measures as a response to the tragedy.
The Texas House has been holding its own investigative committee meetings, targeting the law enforcement response. Those meetings have been held behind closed doors.
The Senate committee hearings, which will start off with meetings Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, will be public.
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