Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said Tuesday that "I am hoping that the president is sincere" after President Donald Trump pledged to get Texas "back and operating immediately" after Hurricane Harvey.
"I'm hoping that he will put behind him the shutting down of the government," Lee, a Texas Democrat who has represented Houston since 1995, told Erin Burnett on CNN. "We are in a catastrophic emergency.
"We need him to keep his word."
Nearly 50 inches of rain has fallen on Houston since Harvey made landfall last Friday — and Lee said the city's emergency services needed resources from FEMA faster.
"We also need our resources from FEMA to get here much faster," she told Burnett. "We need FEMA at our various shelters, the big ones that we have.
"We need FEMA to get their trucks in so that we can have feeding stations. We need to have the medical teams in. And I'm working with them.
"That's what we hope will come about from the president's visit," she said.
Lee added congressional leaders have assured her bipartisan legislation providing aid to Texas will be approved soon.
"They have called me and said there will be no politics in this," she told Burnett. "Tell us what you need, and we will get it.
"Hopefully, we will get all that we need."
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