House Financial Services Committee
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee
CDBG Disaster Recovery: States, Cities, and Denials of Funding
The Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations will hold a hearing entitled “CDBG Disaster Recovery: States, Cities, and Denials of Funding” on Thursday, July 15 at 12:00 pm via Cisco Webex.
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, enacted on February 9, 2018 appropriated $4.3 billion in funding for the state of Texas after Hurricane Harvey struck Texas and Louisiana, causing at least 68 deaths and unprecedented flooding.
Texas Governor Greg Abbot designated the General Land Office (GLO) to administer CDBG-MIT funds on behalf of the state. In May 2020, GLO announced an application process for Texas counties to compete for mitigation funds. Applications for the competition closed October 2020, and GLO announced awards for the first round of more than $2.3 billion in CDBGMIT funding May 2021.
GLO did not award any mitigation funds to Houston, the largest city in Texas, which suffered severe damage during Hurricane Harvey.
After two hurricanes in 2017 disabled Puerto Rico’s electricity grid causing an 11-month blackout, the longest in U.S. history, Congress appropriated approximately $20 billion in CDBG-DR and CDBGMIT funding, but those funds took years to be disbursed to the U.S. territory. Senior officials at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) repeatedly blocked HUD from issuing the Federal Register notices required to begin the allocation process.
Witnesses- Carol Haddock, Director, Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering
- Judge Lina Hidalgo, County Judge, Harris County
- Heather Lagrone, Deputy Director for Community Development and Revitalization, Texas General Land Office
- Sarah Saadian, VP of Public Policy, National Low Income Housing Coalition
- Stephen Begg, Deputy Inspector General, Office of the Inspector General, Department of Housing and Urban Development