Managing the threat of flooding and improving our water infrastructure are vital to our community’s future.

To succeed, we need to work together to strengthen existing systems while implementing new projects and smart policies:

• Improving existing structures, including the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs;
• Expediting the projects recommended following the Buffalo Bayou Resiliency Study;
• Identifying additional detention areas;
• Revising the floodplain maps;
• Devising and installing a system for coastal surge protection;
• Incentivizing public-private partnerships;
• Coordination and communication among key stakeholders; and
• Ensuring federal projects are completed on time and on budget.
  

These matters are critical to residents across our district and across our region.

In Congress, I have worked with city, county, and federal leaders on both sides of the aisle to prioritize our region and to secure the resources, information, and direct assistance our district needs to rebuild and to be better prepared for the next storm.

I led the bipartisan effort to release $4 billion in federal disaster relief funds, which was signed into law by President Trump.  Working with our local leaders, I wrote the Hazard Eligibility and Local Projects (HELP) Act, a bill to cut through federal red tape to allow disaster relief projects to begin sooner, and built a bipartisan coalition to pass the bill in the House and the Senate.  It passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, and President Biden signed it into law.  I have also introduced the Reinvesting in Shoreline Economies and Ecosystems (RISEE) Act to create a new stream of funding and provide a more permanent funding source for coastal infrastructure and flood resiliency projects while helping incentivize new clean energy projects.  

I advocated for our community and worked to deliver nearly $10 million to design and construct the Meyergrove Detention Basin, a stormwater detention basin to protect homes and businesses in our district. I have worked closely with the Army Corps of Engineers’ Galveston District on the projects in our district and region.  Building on the Corps’ work, I advocated and voted for the authorization of the Texas Coastal Study—also known as the Ike Dike—in the Water Resources and Development Act of 2022, to mitigate storm surge at the coast and protect us from catastrophic damage.