Forty-five witnesses testified Monday in a hearing on a bill that would narrow the state’s anti-SLAPP law to exclude cases that lawmakers never meant the law to cover.

The original House Bill 2730 by Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, attracted vociferous criticism from a coalition of media associations and news outlets. Based on their feedback, Leach introduced a committee substitute that’s vastly different from the original legislation he’d filed.