More help after Harvey is rolling in after an overnight budget bill clears Congress, nearly $90 billion more will be headed to states hit hard by disaster.
So how much is headed to Texas, and where is it going?
Staff for Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) told KHOU that the amount of funding for Harvey relief is ultimately up to the agencies receiving the money, but that the Congressman, who is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, pushed to put language in the bill that prioritizes Texas.
On Friday, crews were hard at work on another long day of construction on Project Brays, a collection of 75 flood control projects across 31 miles of Brays Bayou.
It’s a long-awaited project that lawmakers say can finally be finished after Friday’s passage of the Congressional budget bill, which fully funds federally authorized flood control projects.
Among the budget bill highlights: the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) gets $23.5 billion for immediate disaster relief, $28 billion for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to rebuild damaged homes, buildings, and infrastructure, and $17.39 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, mainly for projects to reduce the risk of future flooding and storm damage.
“The Brays (Bayou) project, the White Oak Bayou project, Hunting (Bayou), Clear Creek (Bayou), those should be at the front of the line to get the money,” said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, speaking Friday morning after the vote.
Judge Emmett says while lawmakers are not allowed to earmark funds for specific projects, the bill is written in a way to prioritize areas that have flooded repeatedly in recent years.
“If you say that it goes to projects that are already underway in areas that have flooded a certain number of times in the last few years, then I think that’s the language that got put in, and that’s a creative way of making sure it goes to Brays and White Oak Projects,” said Judge Emmett.
Judge Emmett says the bill’s passage allows Harris County officials to start planning on their own flood mitigation projects.
“One of the things I consider most important about this bucket of money: How much is gonna go to buyouts?” he said.
Judge Emmett says this week he and Mayor Turner wrote a joint letter to Governor Greg Abbott asking for at least $200 million from the state to repair Harris County Flood Control District infrastructure damaged by Harvey, which he says would allow the county to “move forward in funding its own mitigation and buy-back programs.”
On Friday afternoon, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner thanked the Texas Congressional delegation for securing the disaster aid.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Mayor Turner. “I’m elated by that.”
Mayor Turner says for the more than 3,000 Harvey victims still in hotels and thousands still remediating their homes, urgency is the key.
“The key is not…putting us back to where we were prior to Harvey, the key is putting us in a better position,” said Mayor Turner. “Stronger, more resilient. That’s the key.”
The mayor also said he’s also still waiting to see how much Houston will receive from the more than $5 billion HUD awarded to Harvey-damaged areas of Texas in November 2017.
Turner said he’s hoping for 51% of that money for repair and rebuilding, as officials begin to work out the division between the state’s General Land Office and HUD.
None of the lawmakers KHOU spoke with on Friday are sure when their share of the latest round of Congressional disaster aid will arrive in Texas.