TAG Supports Harris County Flood Mitigation Funding Fight

Today, TAG’s Executive Director, Andrea French, read the following statement to the Harris County Commissioner’s Court in support of their efforts to take action on flood mitigation funds denied to Harris County and the City of Houston. 

“Good afternoon Judge Hidalgo and Commissioners of the Court.  This is Andrea French, Executive Director for TAG – Transportation Advocacy Group.  TAG represents eight (8) counties, over 140 member companies, cities and transportation agency partners in the Houston region.  Our mission is to advocate for transportation infrastructure funding and flood mitigation funding is a critical component to these mobility investments and our overall regional economic development and quality of life.  

I am speaking today on behalf of TAG’s Board of Directors and members to condemn the decision of the Texas General Land Office (GLO) to deny Harris County federal flood mitigation funds intended to save lives and protect homes from devastation.  Additionally, we are calling on the GLO to review and change the allocation scoring criteria applied to this disbursement of funds.   

We join Harris County and our fellow community partners in asking the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to reconstitute further allocations of CDBG-MIT funds approved in the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act as direct allocations to Harris County and the City of Houston.  

TAG is committed to next steps and assertive action to remedy this clear misunderstanding of the intended purpose of these funds.  Thank you for your time today and TAG applauds your prioritization of this issue for today’s Commissioner’s court session.”