| 1 | 1 | | 86R35985 BK-F |
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| 2 | 2 | | By: Phelan H.R. No. 2109 |
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| 4 | 4 | | |
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| 5 | 5 | | R E S O L U T I O N |
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| 6 | 6 | | WHEREAS, Hurricane Harvey struck the Texas coast on August |
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| 7 | 7 | | 25, 2017, causing an estimated $125 billion in damage; and |
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| 8 | 8 | | WHEREAS, The second most destructive storm in American |
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| 9 | 9 | | history, the hurricane impacted approximately 30 percent of the |
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| 10 | 10 | | population of Texas, destroying homes, damaging infrastructure, |
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| 11 | 11 | | and displacing thousands of families along the coast; and |
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| 12 | 12 | | WHEREAS, The Federal Emergency Management Agency received |
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| 13 | 13 | | nearly 800,000 applications from affected Texans for some form of |
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| 14 | 14 | | assistance; as many as 83 percent of the people whose homes flooded |
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| 15 | 15 | | did not have flood insurance, creating unprecedented demand for |
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| 16 | 16 | | state and federal disaster recovery assistance; and |
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| 17 | 17 | | WHEREAS, The FEMA application process is so duplicative and |
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| 18 | 18 | | confusing, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development |
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| 19 | 19 | | regulations are so complex, that many survivors give up trying to |
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| 20 | 20 | | navigate the system and, therefore, receive no assistance; and |
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| 21 | 21 | | WHEREAS, Consolidating funding for recovery housing programs |
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| 22 | 22 | | into a single Disaster Housing Response and Recovery Block Grant |
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| 23 | 23 | | would increase efficiency, save taxpayer dollars, and speed the |
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| 24 | 24 | | recovery process by combining FEMA's short-term programs and HUD's |
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| 25 | 25 | | long-term programs; now, therefore, be it |
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| 26 | 26 | | RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 86th Texas |
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| 27 | 27 | | Legislature hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to |
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| 28 | 28 | | enact legislation to consolidate disaster recovery housing funding |
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| 29 | 29 | | into a single Disaster Housing Response and Recovery Block Grant; |
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| 30 | 30 | | and, be it further |
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| 31 | 31 | | RESOLVED, That the chief clerk of the Texas House of |
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| 32 | 32 | | Representatives forward official copies of this resolution to the |
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| 33 | 33 | | president of the United States, to the president of the Senate and |
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| 34 | 34 | | the speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States |
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| 35 | 35 | | Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to Congress |
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| 36 | 36 | | with the request that this resolution be entered in the |
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| 37 | 37 | | Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United |
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| 38 | 38 | | States of America. |
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