Don’t tell Laura Fields that providing $1.7 million to her flood-prone neighborhood would be wasteful spending. Her home in a Houston-area subdivision was filled with 10 inches (25 centimeters) of water during Hurricane Harvey.
“The stress of that was just horrific,” Fields said. “You know, to see fish swimming through your house, it’s not a good feeling,”
The money sought by her congressman, Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw, to improve drainage and flood prevention in Huffman, Texas, is among thousands of requests that lawmakers have submitted as Congress begins to lift a moratorium on targeted federal spending, often referred to as earmarks.
