WHY DID TEXAS REPUBLICANS WAIT SO LONG TO ACT ON FLOOD RELIEF?
GOP finally moves on life-saving bills more than a month after deadly floods — but still prioritizes Trump’s redistricting scheme
**CHICAGO — **More than a month after catastrophic floods killed at least 135 Texans on July 4th weekend, Republicans finally placed flood relief bills on Tuesday's calendar — but only as cover for their real priority: passing Donald Trump’s redistricting scheme to steal five more seats in Congress.
The Central Texas flooding disaster was the second-deadliest flood disaster in Texas history, only below the 1900 Galveston hurricane. Yet Republicans in the Legislature waited over a month to even schedule a bill to be heard in the House of Representatives, choosing instead to rush through a racist redistricting bill that serves corrupt DC interests over those of Texans.
“Governor Abbott has taken families who are grieving, and used them as hostages in a political game,” said Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu. “Abbott already has the power to send aid to Kerr County. He doesn't need a special session for these communities to access federal and state aid. He can act now using the powers he has used many times before.”
As Rep. Armando Walle pointed out in a Houston Chronicle op-ed, “President Trump and Governor Abbott visited Kerr County, saw the aftermath of the floods and decided to tie relief for this disaster to their efforts to break apart our communities and steal a few more votes in Congress.”
Abbott has approved millions of dollars in transfers in response to emergencies he has declared in the past, including for election integrity (2021), restoration of funds after his line-item veto of the entire Legislative branch (2021), school safety initiatives (2022) and COVID-19 response (2022). He could have acted immediately to help flood victims — instead, this year, he chose to play politics.
“Abbott doesn’t need a special session for flood relief, and he knows that. He’s using grieving families as leverage to ram through a racist gerrymandering scheme that silences communities like mine across Texas,” said Rep. Armando Walle, a member of the Legislative Budget Board. “The only thing standing between Texas and real disaster relief isn't Democrats, it's Republicans who chose politics over people for over a month. Republicans could have acted on Day One. Instead, they spent five weeks prioritizing Trump's redistricting demands while flood victims waited.”
House Democrats have been calling for immediate action on flood relief since the disaster struck. Republicans' month-long delay in addressing flood relief while rushing redistricting exposes their true priorities: serving Trump and billionaire donors over protecting Texas families. Now they want to blame Democrats for the very delay they created.