Texas churches plead once again for disaster relief FEMA misses court deadline, churches back in court asking for needed relief to rebuild

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Three churches are once again asking a Houston federal court today for equal access to disaster relief. The filing comes after a judge rejected FEMA’s attempt in Harvest Family Church v. FEMA to delay their challenge and set a December 1 deadline for FEMA to change its position, which it has not. Since the devastation by Hurricane Harvey in late August, FEMA has denied houses of worship access to federal disaster aid grants while allowing all other kinds of non-profits to apply for and receive those grants. The churches are now asking the Houston federal court to grant them immediate access to disaster relief grants.

The following statement can be attributed to Daniel Blomberg, counsel at Becket:

“Especially when it comes to recovering from hurricanes, justice delayed is justice denied. The churches sought relief from the federal courts almost three months ago. Is it too much to ask that they get the access they need to recover from Hurricane Harvey? We are hopeful that the court will rule soon.”

For more information or to arrange an interview with a Becket attorney, contact Melinda Skea at media@becketlaw.org or 202-349-7224. Interviews can be arranged in English, Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

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Becket is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions and has a 100% win-rate before the United States Supreme Court. For over 20 years, it has successfully defended clients of all faiths, including Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians (read more here).