Bill Text: TX SR816 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Urging Congress to enact legislation to consolidate disaster recovery housing funding into a single Disaster Housing Response and Recovery Block Grant.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Passed) 2019-05-24 - Reported enrolled [SR816 Detail]
Download: Texas-2019-SR816-Introduced.html
86R35900 BPG-F | ||
By: Alvarado, Kolkhorst | S.R. No. 816 |
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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 Senate 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 secretary of the senate 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. |