hurricane

During this year's Legislative Session, Texas Impact tracked every disaster-related bill that was proposed on the state level. Now, our focus has turned to the national level, where each piece of legislation involving disaster preparation, mitigation, relief, and recovery is sure to have implications here in Texas. The most notable pieces of legislation to be proposed on the federal level this summer came from Congressman Bennie Thompson from Mississippi, Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. He filed three bills that would set aside more than a billion dollars for diaster-related projects: $200 million to make public or assisted housing units more disaster resilient (HR 3026), $500 million for mitigation grants to low income homeowners (HR 3027), and $600 million for states to improve immediate disaster response procedures (HR 3028). For a more complete anaylsis of these bills, see the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC).

All three of these bills have been referred to House committees, so they have a long way to go in the process, but they are exciting pieces of legislation that serve as a reminder that disaster policy is an important issue at all times and at all levels of government.