UVALDE COUNTY, Texas — A bill is expected to be filed for the 2023 Texas legislative session that would award millions to the victims of the Uvalde school shooting.
The proposal would award $7.7 million to each of the families of the 19 children and two teachers killed at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022. The bill also seeks to award $2.1 million to the victims who were injured in the mass shooting, and $250,000 to anyone who suffered a mental or emotional disability from the shooting.
The total fund would amount to $300 million.
Democratic Texas Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who plans to file the bill and whose district includes Uvalde, says millions of dollars have been raised to help the victims already. But he added they've had to jump through hoops to get that money.
"I have sought to create amounts that are realistic and within the means of my ability to talk to my colleagues into doing something appropriate," Sen. Gutierrez said in a press conference Wednesday.
He said there have been other massacres, but this one is different due to the delayed law enforcement response.
"In none of those other massacres did the police take 77 minutes to act. The average mass shooting in the United States takes 10 minutes. That didn't happen here," Sen. Gutierrez said.
Read the full text of the bill below:
The proposal would establish a board consisting of the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the house, state senator representing Uvalde and state representative of Uvalde County.
The board would then meet to review the "veracity" of each application. If approved, the funds would be dispersed to the applicant. While the legislation doesn't specify where the money would be sourced, Sen. Gutierrez mentioned the surplus fund at the press conference. He said it currently has $27 billion.
He compared the proposal to a victim's compensation fund for the victims of 9/11.
"We will never be able to make these families and the other families that are in this community and have been affected...we will never be able to make them whole," Sen. Gutierrez said. "But our legal system does that through financial compensation."
This is a developing story and further details will be added as they are received.