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.