Abbott's Own Disaster Request Admits What He Won't Say Out Loud
Governor's July 17 Letter to Trump Concedes Texas Can't Handle Flooding Alone, After a Year Spent Pushing to Shrink the Federal Aid He Just Asked For
TEXAS — Governor Greg Abbott spent the past year telling Washington that FEMA does too much and states can handle disasters on their own. In a letter this week he told Donald Trump the opposite.
In a July 17 request for a major disaster declaration covering 28 Texas counties, Abbott wrote that the flooding was "beyond the capabilities of the State of Texas and affected local governments." He asked for the full range of federal help: Direct Federal Assistance, Public Assistance grants across all seven categories, statewide hazard mitigation funding, SBA disaster loans, and IRS tax relief. It is the same federal safety net Abbott's own FEMA Review Council spent the past year recommending Trump shrink.
"Greg Abbott wants it both ways," said Sabotaging Our Safety Advisory Council member Derrick Osobase. "He agrees with the council FEMA does too much, then tells Trump Texas can't survive without it. He should act on what his own request admits, not what his loyalty to Trump tells him is right."
Abbott's letter also undercuts his own record on disaster recovery. Ten of the 28 counties in this request were already hit by last July's flooding, and the letter tells Trump that 271,329 cubic yards of debris from that disaster still hadn't been cleared before the new floodwaters arrived. Abbott's own filing puts new state response costs at approximately $489.7 million, a bill that keeps growing every time a Texas community gets hit twice before it has recovered once.
For nearly a year, disaster survivors organized under the Fund Texas Forever campaign have asked him to build a permanent $500 million recovery fund from the state's $24 billion surplus, so Texas would not have to rebuild its response from scratch, and beg Washington for it, every time a new storm hits the same ground. Abbott never committed to it.
