Cornyn Blasts 'Bureaucrats' For Delaying Post-Harvey Funding
AUSTIN (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — The Senate's No. 2 Republican is blasting the Trump administration's Office of Management and Budget for failing to release nearly $4.4 billion in recovery funding to Texas after Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Majority Whip John Cornyn says he has repeatedly met with federal officials: "I'm running out of patience with OMB."
Speaking to reporters in Washington, Cornyn said, "They've kind of run out of excuses," adding, "They just need to let that money go. It's been long enough."
About $4.4 billion in federal grants was approved last February, meant to encourage post-Harvey rebuilding in ways that can help resist future large hurricanes.
But federal guidelines and other rules allowing the grants to flow haven't yet been set. Cornyn said, "I don't want the bureaucrats at OMB to hold it up."
The state's senior Senator was in Dallas last month to take part in a roundtable discussion about a new federal law aimed at cracking down on human traffickers and helping victims.
"This needs to come to an end. Good people are being hurt. This needs to stop. The political gamesmanship, the gotcha politics, that hurts people," Sen. Cornyn said
At the time, Cornyn said both parties were still far apart, but that he hoped one day Republicans and Democrats would working together to settle their differences.
"It's going to require those of us who were elected Senators and Congressmen stepping up and sometimes doing things that are a little uncomfortable, but compromise is not a dirty word."