AUSTIN — Today Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush issued a statement supporting Senate Resolution 816, which was passed unanimously by the Texas Senate today, and House Resolution 2109. The resolution was joint authored by Carol Alvarado and Lois Kolkhorst in the Senate and Rep. Dade Phelan in the Texas House. The resolution urges Congress to combine FEMA’s short-term disaster housing programs with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) long-term programs to expedite the recovery process for storm survivors.

“The historic nature of Hurricane Harvey calls for an equally historic response,” said Commissioner Bush. “Following a natural disaster, bureaucracy should not stand in the way of providing practical assistance, but unfortunately red-tape delays often inhibit a family’s ability to fully recover. Consolidating short-term and long-term disaster recovery programs is a common-sense reform. I applaud Sen. Carol Alvarado, Senator Lois Kolkhorst, and Rep. Dade Phelan for calling on Congress to address this issue and offer my full support in improving the way we respond to natural disasters.”

Commissioner Bush included this recommendation in his report, Hurricane Harvey: Texas at Risk, which was published on the one-year anniversary of the storm and included 18 recommendations for how to improve disaster housing response and recovery at the local, state, and federal levels. Read more about this recommendation and more at recovery.texas.gov/texasatrisk.