Issue Position: Disaster Preparedness

Issue Position

Senate Bill 7 / House Joint Resolution 4 (Authored by Rep. Phelan) creates the Flood Infrastructure Fund (FIF) to support a statewide effort for regional flood planning and flood mitigation projects to strengthen our state's infrastructure. Projects will be eligible for funding predicated upon the state determining all local entities in the region have: fully cooperated and substantially participated in the process of developing the projects; held public meetings to accept comments from interested parties and, the projects have been completely engineered and scored against one another. The FIF will allow loans at or below market rate to assist in flood projects, flood project preparation, the extensive application process at all levels of government and the engineering of structural or nonstructural flood mitigation. The Texas Water Development Board will administer the funds and approve the applications. The creation of the fund authorizes an appropriation of $793 Million from the state's "Rainy Day Fund". House Joint Resolution will appear as Proposition 8 on the November, 5th Constitutional Election Ballot. Its passage ensures the funds will remain in an account solely for uses related to flood mitigation projects.

House Bill 5 (Authored by Rep. Phelan) will provide for the development of a state catastrophic debris management plan and seeks to eliminate the local bureaucracy that can occur after a disaster. Storm debris is a danger to one's physical and mental health and House bill 5 will expedite its removal while ensuring local jurisdictions are better prepared to respond to and recover from natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey.

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