U.S. government takes step toward releasing $4.3B in Harvey relief funds

WASHINGTON — Texans have been waiting a year and a half for more than $4 billion in disaster recovery money Congress approved after Hurricane Harvey and major floods the two years before. They'll have to wait several months more, but the federal government finally cleared a major hurdle toward sending the cash on Friday.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development published long-awaited rules for the funding, which is meant to help brace homes and neighborhoods for future storms. It's an incremental step — next, Texas will submit its plans for the money that Congress appropriated in February 2018.

State leaders cheered the development, and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush said his office would get to work drafting and getting approval for a state action plan required by the new rules — a 126-page document published Friday that kicks off a process he estimated will still take at least nine months.