George P. Bush Tapped to Oversee $4B Texas Disaster Mitigation Plan

Article

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and the Texas General Land Office have been appointed to lead a comprehensive resiliency and disaster mitigation program, funded by more than $4 billion in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant for Mitigation (CDBG-MIT).

Announced by Gov. Greg Abbott, the comprehensive program will prioritize large-scale, regional projects that increase the state’s resilience to disasters statewide, protect lives and mitigate against future hurricanes and other natural disasters.

In accordance with HUD requirements, the funds will be focused on reducing “long-term risk of loss of life, injury, damage to and loss of property, and suffering and hardship, by lessening the impact of future disasters.” The funds were appropriated by Congress on Feb. 9, 2018, for mitigation projects in the areas affected by Hurricane Harvey as well as 2015 and 2016 Floods.

Since 2015, 183 Texas counties have received a Presidential disaster declaration.

Information on CDBG-MIT

On Aug. 23, 2019, HUD released mandatory rules for the use of more than $4.3 billion in funding for mitigation projects, which were appropriated by Congress on Feb. 9, 2018. Publication of rules in the Federal Register was necessary for the GLO to begin drafting a state action plan, before sending it to HUD for approval. This process has already begun and is expected to take approximately nine months or more to complete.

In total, HUD allocated $4,383,085,000 in CDBG-MIT funds to Texas. Altogether, 140 Texas counties are eligible for some part of this allocation of funding for 2015, 2016, and 2017 (Hurricane Harvey) disasters.

The Texas General Land Office will administer $4,297,189,000 in funding as directed by HUD: