AUSTIN, Texas (KTRE) - The Texas House voted Wednesday to expand a newly-created rural infrastructure disaster recovery program so that Hill Country areas affected by the July 4 flooding could be eligible.

The vote was 135-1 for Rep. Trent Ashby’s (R-Lufkin) HB 254 bill, which will expand the Rural Infrastructure Disaster Recovery Program’s eligibility criteria to counties with a population of less than 100,000, a GDP of less than $3 billion and a poverty rate greater than 10%.

The vote Wednesday came in the wake of the Hill Country floods earlier this summer. Officials in Kerrville seeking additional state aid called for changes to the program so that areas affected by the flooding could be eligible for grants under the program.

State lawmakers heeded that call, raising the maximum GDP

See Full Page