Biden and Texas governor play blame game over Hurricane Beryl relief delay

The White House has approved disaster relief for 67 Texas counties affected by Hurricane Beryl in the midst of a tiff between President Joe Biden and Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) over a delay in federal assistance.

“President Biden approved 67 counties for federal disaster assistance after Texas requested a Major Disaster Declaration yesterday,” Abbott said in a statement Wednesday. “This approval is a critical step forward in our efforts to provide assistance to impacted Texans across the state.”

Abbott is in Asia for an economic development trip. Biden told the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday that the White House could not send federal money without first receiving a request from Abbott’s office and that it had not received one yet.

“I’ve been trying to track down the governor to see — I don’t have any authority to do that without a specific request from the governor,” Biden said.

Abbott has maintained that the state is “working around the clock to respond and help Texas recover.” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has been acting as governor in Abbott’s physical absence to oversee the state’s response.

More than 1.3 million Texas residents remain without electricity since Hurricane Beryl descended on Houston on Monday as a Category 1 storm, according to PowerOutage.us.

Patrick took to X earlier this week to call Biden’s claim a load of “malarkey,” stealing one of the president’s most-used terms.

“I am disappointed that President Biden is turning Hurricane Beryl into a political issue. He is falsely accusing me that I was not reachable. He obviously did not know his own employees from FEMA were side-by-side with me for 3 days! All he had to do was call them and have them hand their phone to me,” Patrick wrote. “To quote President Biden, this is a load of malarkey, and he’s shoveling it!”

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Patrick said he and federal officials worked to determine “what our outstanding needs were” before making an official federal request for aid.

Counties covered by the disaster relief include Anderson, Angelina, Aransas, Austin, Bowie, Brazoria, Brazos, Burleson, Calhoun, Cameron, Camp, Cass, Chambers, Cherokee, Colorado, Dewitt, Fayette, Fort Bend, Freestone, Galveston, Goliad, Gregg, Grimes, Hardin, Harris, Harrison, Hidalgo, Houston, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Kenedy, Kleberg, Lavaca, Lee, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Marion, Matagorda, Milam, Montgomery, Morris, Nacogdoches, Newton, Nueces, Orange, Panola, Polk, Refugio, Robertson, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, San Patricio, Shelby, Trinity, Tyler, Upshur, Victoria, Walker, Waller, Washington, Webb, Wharton, and Willacy.