Following recent severe droughts, a Joint Interim Committee to Study Water Desalination has been created by the legislature in the US state of Texas, including members of both houses.
On 16 January 2014, Lt Governor David Dewhurst appointed to the committee Senator Eddie Lucio of Brownsville, who had sponsored the resolution creating it. Brownsville has had a brackish-water desalination plant for a decade and has also pursued a seawater plant.
Dewhurst also instructed the Senate Natural Resources Committee to focus on four interim charges to study