On the recordFebruary 7, 2020
I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chair, I rise today to offer this bipartisan amendment with my colleague and neighbor, Mr. Crenshaw, to help families who, through no fault of their own, were denied disaster recovery funding--in our case, for our constituents affected by Hurricane Harvey. As Members of this body will recall, Hurricane Harvey landed on the Texas Gulf Coast in August of 2017. It was the second costliest hurricane in United States history. It took 68 lives, it dropped more than 60 inches of rain, and it caused nearly $125 billion in damages. Our community came together to help, and we showed each other and the Nation how much we can accomplish when we work together to help our neighbors in need. This body worked, too, appropriating funds quickly to help those affected for immediate assistance and for long-term rebuilding. But the needs were great and the funds, though well-intentioned, were slow. So many of our constituents took out loans from the Small Business Administration, where they could get low-interest loans to begin the necessary and immediate work of rebuilding. When they applied for the SBA loans, they were told that taking out a loan would not disqualify them from other disaster aid. Unfortunately, they were, in fact, disqualified from other forms of Federal aid because they had taken out an SBA loan. {time} 1100 If they had taken out a loan from a friend or a bank, they would not have been in this situation.…
