Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) led all members of the Harris County congressional delegation in a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development urging the extension of two disaster recovery grant contracts. This extension will allow Harris County Flood Control District to utilize fully Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) and Community Development Block Grant Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funds to complete flood risk reduction projects throughout Harris County. 

“Thank you for your leadership in assisting our communities as they work to recover from and mitigate against future disasters,” the letter reads.  “As Members from Congressional districts representing the residents of Harris County, we write regarding the request from the Texas General Land Office (GLO) and Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) for an extension of CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT contracts.  This extension will allow HCFCD to complete critical risk reduction projects for our most vulnerable communities.

“The CDBG projects HCFCD is implementing will provide large-scale flood-risk-reduction infrastructure across our communities and mitigate damages from anticipated future flooding,” the letter continues.  “With the assistance of the GLO, Harris County Commissioner’s Court recently executed both the CDBG-DR contract for $322 million and the CDBG-MIT contract for $541.5 million. We are concerned that circumstances outside of HCFCD’s control, including increase in the cost of materials and unanticipated delays in the construction and design phase, may delay the program’s implementation.

“The approval of [the] program extension requests will allow HCFCD to deliver on the promise and purpose of these federal funds: to build a more resilient future for our county, the third largest in the country,” the letter concludes.  “Accordingly, we hope this request is given all due consideration.”

To view the full text of the letter, click here.