Lizzie Fletcher: “Woman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chairwoman, as I stand here this morning, my district and the…”

“Woman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chairwoman, as I stand here this morning, my district and the entire Houston region are underwater again. A severe rainstorm swept across the Houston area last night. Our bayous, creeks, and tributaries are over their banks. Rivers are cresting near record levels and may surpass them before the weekend is over. Nearly 90,000 residents have gone without power, and many are trapped by floodwaters. Parts of our area had up to 7 inches of rainfall within just a few hours last night, and it is still raining. It is the worst rainfall we have had since Hurricane Harvey. And last night, I heard from my constituents, it felt like Harvey and they were afraid. As Members of this body will recall, Hurricane Harvey hit Houston and the Gulf Coast in August of 2017. It dumped nearly 60 inches of rain; it claimed 68 lives; and it caused an estimate of $125 billion in damages. It was the second most expensive hurricane in United States history. Members of this body responded to Harvey's devastation. In February of 2018, this body appropriated more than $4 billion to Texas, through the Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds, explicitly to rebuild and mitigate against future storms, storms like the one we are having right now. But nearly a year and a half after those appropriations were made, those funds have not arrived. Why?…”