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