Kay Bailey Hutchison in Shrub, by Molly Ivins

On Welfare & Poverty: Secured $3M federal funds for poverty in Rio Grande Valley

Along the river's banks are hundreds of colonias, "subdivisions" where developers never got around to providing the streets, sewers, and drinkable water they promised when they sold the lots and then moved on to the next instant slum.

There are still many colonias that lack water, streets, or sewers. But colonias with no public services are--to borrow a phrase from the former Texas house speaker--"far and few between." Not as far and few between and W. Bush's working visits to the area.

When Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison visited the area in April 1999, she walked into a house with rotten plywood floors. She walked through the mud streets while it was raining. Hutchison also helped secure #3 million in federal funding for the colonias.