Rep. Vela Announces $46 Million Fund for Cameron, Hidalgo, Jim Wells Counties After Flooding in South Texas

WASHINGTON, May 14 -- Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, issued the following news release:

Congressmen Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15), Henry Cuellar (TX-28) and Filemon Vela (TX-34) have announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $46,400,000 in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding for Cameron, Hidalgo, and Jim Wells Counties following the June 2018 floods that caused millions in damages throughout South Texas.

The three congressman released a joint statement:

"While the damages were greater than $46 million, this is a start and good news for South Texans that were affected by torrential rain that caused severe flooding throughout the region. Just last week, we called on the Trump Administration to take action, and this week they did just that. We look forward to working with Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush to get these federal funds disbursed throughout the area. We are working to setup a meeting with his office for next week to discuss the matter and will engage with him on this and other issues affecting South Texans."

According to Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, for Texas to receive these funds, HUD must publish rules governing the use of the recovery dollars in the Federal Register, which enables the Texas General Land Office (GLO) to move forward drafting a state action plan. Once drafted, the plan must be translated in to multiple languages and made available for a mandatory public comment period. After the comments are responded to, the state action plan is then sent to HUD for final approval. The federally-mandated process takes a minimum of four months and has taken longer than six months in many cases.