Our team has continued to compile disaster recovery resources, and I am sharing some highlights below.  For a comprehensive list of resources, visit my website here.  I hope you will forward this information to anyone you know who may need it.

As I have previously mentioned, the federal disaster declaration makes it possible for people in Harris and Fort Bend counties to receive disaster assistance from the federal government, including FEMA and the SBA.  I have outlined here some of the key points relating to federal disaster assistance.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Assistance

• Individual Assistance Programs
• Individuals and Households Program
  • Individuals and Households Program Sequence of Delivery

To apply for FEMA assistance:

• Eligible residents of Fort Bend and Harris Counties with uninsured damages or losses caused by Hurricane Beryl can apply for FEMA disaster assistance.  FEMA may be able to help with serious needs, displacement, temporary lodging, basic home repair costs, personal property loss or other disaster-caused needs. 
  • Serious Needs Assistance: A one-time $750 payment per household to help pay for essential items, including water, food, first aid, prescriptions, infant formula, breastfeeding supplies, diapers, consumable medical supplies, durable medical equipment, personal hygiene items and fuel for transportation.
  • Displacement Assistance: Money to help with immediate housing needs if you cannot return to your home because of the disaster. The money can be used to stay in a hotel, with family and friends or for other options while you look for temporary housing.
• To apply, homeowners and renters can:
  • Go online to DisasterAssistance.gov.
  • Download the FEMA App for mobile devices
  • Call the FEMA helpline at 800-621-3362 between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. CT. Help is available in most languages.
  • Visit any Disaster Recovery Center. For locations and hours, go online to fema.gov/drc.
• What you will need to apply:
  • A current phone number where you can be contacted
  • Your address at the time of the disaster and the address where you are now staying
  • Your Social Security number
  • A general list of damage and losses
  • Banking information if you choose direct deposit
  • If insured, the policy number or the agent and/or the company name
• Texans who applied for FEMA assistance after the April 26-June 5 storms and flooding, and who had additional damage or losses from Hurricane Beryl, can make a separate application for Hurricane Beryl assistance.

To apply for SBA disaster loans:

• Homeowners, renters, and small businesses in Harris County and Fort Bend County are eligible for financial assistance from the U.S. Small Business Administration.  The types of loans available are:
  • Business Physical Disaster Loans – Loans to businesses to repair or replace disaster-damaged property owned by the business, including real estate, inventories, supplies, machinery and equipment. Businesses of any size are eligible. Private, non-profit organizations such as charities, churches, private universities, etc., are also eligible.
  • Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) – Working capital loans to help small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture, and most private, non-profit organizations of all sizes meet their ordinary and necessary financial obligations that cannot be met as a direct result of the disaster. These loans are intended to assist through the disaster recovery period.
  • Home Disaster Loans – Loans to homeowners or renters to repair or replace disaster-damaged real estate and personal property, including automobiles.
• Applications for disaster loans may be submitted online at www.sba.gov/disaster. Please contact the SBA’s Customer Service Center by email at disastercustomerservice@sba.gov or by phone at 1-800-659-2955 for future assistance.  
• You may also visit a SBA Business Recovery Center where SBA customer service representatives will be on hand to answer questions, explain the application process, and help applicants complete an electric loan application.
  • Harris County: University of Houston – Downtown, Marilyn Davies College of Business, 320 North Main St (Room B106, 1st Floor), Houston, TX 77002.
    • Mon-Fri: 9:00am-6:00pm CT | Sat: 9:00am-4:00pm CT
• Please note: The deadline to apply for physical damage is September 10, 2024. The deadline to apply for economic injury is April 14, 2025.

It was good to be home in Houston this week.  I was glad to connect with mayors of all the cities within our district to talk storm recovery and more, to host roundtable conversations in the district office about community concerns and engagement, visit with district residents, give a congressional update to the Rotary Club of West University Place, and much more.

One of the highlights of the week was my visit to NASA Johnson Space Center this morning to attend the naming of JSC’s Building 12 as the Dorothy Vaughan Center in honor of the Women of Apollo.  What an inspiration, on the eve of the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, to celebrate the women who helped lay the foundation for our nation’s space program.

If you have seen the movie Hidden Figures, you will remember Dorothy Vaughn as the leader of the "West Area Computing" unit, an all-Black group of female mathematicians, at the time called “human computers” whose calculations helped guide the early aeronautics research at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia.  (And if you haven’t seen the movie, do!)

Today’s honorees included Houstonians who worked on the Apollo missions, and I was thrilled to get to visit with several of them at the event, including our TX07 neighbor Poppy Northcutt.  During the Apollo program, Poppy worked as a "human computer" before becoming the first woman engineer to work in Mission Control.  She calculated the return-to-Earth trajectories for Apollo 8, the first mission to leave Earth’s orbit and circle the Moon, and she was part of the team that figured out how to bring the Apollo 13 astronauts home, working as well on the missions in between. Congratulations to Poppy and all the trailblazing women who NASA honored today.  What an inspiration you are!

As I have mentioned in my previous reports to you, the U.S. has one of the highest maternal mortality rates of all developed countries, and Harris County has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the U.S., an issue of great concern to people across our community. 

Last week, as part of the Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis, Vice President Harris announced that the Biden-Harris administration has, for the first time, created national health and safety standards for maternal care, which means that nearly every hospital in our country will soon be required to provide new mothers with delivery rooms that are fully stocked with lifesaving medical equipment.  These new standards focus on ensuring emergency departments have sufficient protocols and supplies (for example, “crash carts”) for obstetrical emergencies, that hospitals have procedures in place for transferring maternity patients to other facilities if they do not have the capabilities to provide sufficient care, and when a maternal death happens, that a hospital understands why and works to improve care so it does not happen again.  These new standards include annual staff training on evidence-based maternal health practices, among other topics. 

As part of the Blueprint, the administration has also: 

• Extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from 2 to 12 months, providing lifesaving coverage to hundreds of thousands of new moms;
• Created a new “Birthing Friendly” hospital designation so that women can more easily find high-quality maternity care.  Several Birthing Friendly hospitals are in TX-07, including: 
  • Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital
  • HCA Houston Healthcare West
  • St. Luke's Sugar Land Hospital
  • Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital
• Launched the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline, which connects individuals to free, confidential, 24/7 support.  Behavioral health issues, such as maternal depression, are the most common complication of pregnancy and childbirth. New moms and their families can receive immediate support, resources, and referrals through the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline (1-833-TLC-MAMA/1-833-852-6262).  Professional counselors offer free, 24/7, confidential support by phone or text, in English and Spanish, and interpreter services are available in 60 languages.

The House will be back in session next week, and I will be back in Washington next week for votes on appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2025 and more.  I look forward to sharing another update with you then. 

As always, I am proud to represent you and I am here to help you.  Please call my office at (713) 353-8680 or (202) 225-2571 or email here at any time to ask for assistance or share your thoughts.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,