UNITED STATES SENATE
Sen. Ted Cruz Press Office
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cruz Press Office:
Darin Miller
Dave Vasquez
August 25, 2022
ICYMI: Sen. Cruz Tours Proposed Coastal Texas Construction Sites, Commemorates Harvey
GALVESTON, Texas – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) met with Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District leadership on Wednesday, August 24th and toured proposed construction sites for the Bolivar Roads Gate System and the Galveston Ring Barrier System as part of the Coastal Texas Program.
This year, Sen. Cruz won inclusion of authorization for the Coastal Texas Program, commonly referred to as the Coastal Spine or Ike Dike, in a water resources infrastructure bill, which will better protect coastal Texans from major storms.
Following the tour, Sen. Cruz said:
“We just spent the last several hours in a very productive meeting with the leadership with the Army Corps of Engineers and with the leadership here along the Gulf Coast. It is very encouraging to see the steady and consistent progress we’re making towards building a Coastal Spine that will protect the Gulf Coast from the next hurricane that we know is coming. This has been a long project in the making. Going back to Hurricane Ike and the initial discussions of an Ike Dike. That since expanded substantially and became a much more comprehensive system to deal with and prevent the catastrophic damage that a storm surge can cause.
“But it’s also wise to learn from disasters in the past. I grew up in Houston. If you live in the Gulf Coast, you’re going to face hurricanes. That’s just the way it's always been, and I suspect the way it always will be. But we need to be smart and prepared and put in place strong mitigation to protect and keep people safe. And so I want to commend the local leaders who are working so hard with the state leaders and with the federal leaders to come together with a smart, targeted, serious plan to try to minimize the damage of the next disaster that comes our way, and to try to protect human life to the maximum extent possible, and protect our homes and businesses and economy going forward.”
Reflecting on Hurricane Harvey, Sen. Cruz said:
“Five years ago, I was proud to lead the effort to pass $89 billion initially in flood relief and hurricane relief for the state of Texas in the wake of Harvey, was proud to author targeted tax relief for those who were victims of damage of hurricane Harvey. And we came through it
“Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of when Hurricane Harvey made landfall five years ago. Today, the hurricane was in the Gulf Coast about to make landfall. Every one of us remembers the horrific challenges that Hurricane Harvey posed: the damage – it was the second most costly natural disaster in U.S. history – the scope of the damage from Corpus Christi all the way up to Orange, Texas. Massive damage, wind damage, flooding damage.
“Thinking back to five years ago when Hurricane Harvey hit, I was at home in Houston with my family. And over the days and weeks that followed, what we saw was incredible. We saw Texans come together with a unity, with a resolve. While the hurricane was here, we saw Texans heroically going out to rescue their friends and neighbors, rescue them from harm’s way. We saw people jumping in bass boats and going to pull their neighbor out of trouble. It was one Texan helping another Texan.”
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey’s devastation in 2017, Sen. Cruz visited with victims, volunteers, first responders, and local officials in every region affected by the storm. He worked with Sen. Cornyn to bring $89 billion in federal aid to Texas, established a bilingual Hurricane Harvey recovery working group to address Texans’ needs, worked with colleagues on legislation to help Texans applying for disaster assistance, and co-authored the federal law that provided crucial and immediate tax relief to storm survivors along the Gulf Coast. Another law authored by Sens. Cruz and Cornyn expedited distribution of $4.3 billion in disaster recovery funding for community development block grants.
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