Trump plan to tap Army Corps funds for wall hits a nerve in Houston

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by Kevin Diaz 1/11/2019

An emergency Trump administration plan to tap storm protection funds to pay for a border wall was slammed Friday by Houston lawmakers who said it could endanger the city’s recovery from Hurricane Harvey and jeopardize the region’s preparedness for future storms.

While details of the proposal remained unclear, lawmakers in both parties scrambled to win assurances from the White House and allay concerns about projects in the Gulf Region, including a proposed coastal barrier to protect Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel.

Reports that President Donald Trump has been briefed on a plan to use unspent money from Army Corps of Engineers projects heightened tensions in Congress about his threat to use emergency powers to build hundreds of miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, much of it in the Rio Grande Valley.

The controversy also highlighted long-standing concerns about the slow pace at which Washington has released emergency disaster funds to Texas since Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

A White House spokesman declined to confirm details of the plan Friday as the nation lurched into the third week of a partial government shutdown in a budget fight over Trump’s long-promised border wall.

Trump, speaking at a White House roundtable on border security Friday, maintained he has the right to declare a national emergency to build the wall, but did not say when he might.

“I'm not going to do it so fast," Trump said, adding that Democrats in Congress "should come back and vote" for the $5.7 billion in wall funds he has requested for 2019. "We want Congress to do its job. What we're not looking to do right now is a national emergency."

While Texas Republicans have largely backed the president in his standoff with Democratic leaders in Congress, some have balked at the prospect of siphoning money from military construction or emergency disaster projects.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas/article/Trump-plan-to-tap-Army-Corps-funds-for-wall-hits-13527841.php

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Trump is kicking butt

[Sanguine]

Come on, Houston, it was Aug. 25, 2017, over a year ago.  I have no doubt there is still work to be done, but the major portion has already been done. 

[thackney]

Come on, Houston, it was Aug. 25, 2017, over a year ago.  I have no doubt there is still work to be done, but the major portion has already been done.

It is not so much repair projects, but projects to prevent future damage.

Post-Harvey report outlines 4,000 projects to guard Texas against disasters
https://www.click2houston.com/news/post-harvey-report-outlines-4000-projects-to-guard-texas-against-disasters
 December 13, 2018

An after-action report on Hurricane Harvey outlines 4,000 projects aimed at protecting Texas infrastructure against future disasters.

The recommendations made in the 174-page report were announced Thursday by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp, who was named Abbott’s recovery czar about 10 days after the Category 4 storm slammed into the Gulf Coast.

“It was one of the most intense years of my life,” Sharp said.

In addition to the projects, the report also recommends better training for city and county leaders in post-disaster rescue and recovery, creating a statewide task force that can be mobilized before a disaster and creating a state case management system that could eventually replace the federal system....

Report of the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas
https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/press/RebuildTexasHurricaneHarveyEyeOfTheStorm_12132018.pdf

[Bigun]

It is not so much repair projects, but projects to prevent future damage.

Post-Harvey report outlines 4,000 projects to guard Texas against disasters
https://www.click2houston.com/news/post-harvey-report-outlines-4000-projects-to-guard-texas-against-disasters
 December 13, 2018

An after-action report on Hurricane Harvey outlines 4,000 projects aimed at protecting Texas infrastructure against future disasters.

The recommendations made in the 174-page report were announced Thursday by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp, who was named Abbott’s recovery czar about 10 days after the Category 4 storm slammed into the Gulf Coast.

“It was one of the most intense years of my life,” Sharp said.

In addition to the projects, the report also recommends better training for city and county leaders in post-disaster rescue and recovery, creating a statewide task force that can be mobilized before a disaster and creating a state case management system that could eventually replace the federal system....

Report of the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas
https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/press/RebuildTexasHurricaneHarveyEyeOfTheStorm_12132018.pdf

How about we just stop building houses in the floodplains downstream of previous government flood control projects?

[thackney]

How about we just stop building houses in the floodplains downstream of previous government flood control projects?

It is not that simple of an issue.  In Harris County, about 38 percent of flood insurance claims made between 1976 and 2014 were for properties outside the floodplain.

Rain does not fall evenly and predictably.

[Bigun]

It is not that simple of an issue.  In Harris County, about 38 percent of flood insurance claims made between 1976 and 2014 were for properties outside the floodplain.

Rain does not fall evenly and predictably.

I'm well aware that it's not that simple but you have to start somewhere and something as basic as that seems like a damned good place!

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I'm well aware that it's not that simple but you have to start somewhere and something as basic as that seems like a damned good place!

my simple formula is flood once, it is on me.  Flood twice, you are on your own.