TEXAS - The Lone Star State has a building problem. There's a shortage of construction workers, and Hurricane Harvey has only made it worse.

State lawmakers got briefed on the challenge on Wednesday.

The head of the Texas Association of Builders told a Senate committee that before the storm, homes in Texas took more than a month longer to complete than in the rest of the country because of the state's worker shortage.

Now after Harvey, the delay is at least two months or longer. 

"It's going to take longer. It's going to drive up costs. People are going to be frustrated," said Texas Association of Builders Executive Director Scott Norman.

Norman said that before the storm, the state needed around 300,000 more construction workers, and that the need is now even greater.

Making the worker shortage worse is that many of Texas' skilled builders are nearing retirement age. According to the Texas Association of Builders, the average age of an electrician in the state is 59-years-old, where the average age of a plumber is 62.

But some lawmakers said they can diagnose the problem.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said it's partly due to, "a labor force that, quite frankly, most days are afraid to come out of the shadows of the skyscrapers of Houston."

Immigration experts estimate that 50 percent of Texas' construction workforce is undocumented. They said measures like the state's new anti-sanctuary city law, commonly referred to as SB4, and more aggressive tactics from ICE are convincing some undocumented workers to stay home.

"They are afraid of what's happening with SB4, and they see what's happening on the job," said Workers Defense Project Communications Director Sam Robles.

But some in the construction industry can't say if SB4 has made things worse.

"You know, I don't know if it has or not," Norman said. 

But with plenty to be done on the job site, they're quick to a call on Congress to do a little work of their own.

"We need comprehensive immigration reform that recognizes the need for workforce visas, especially for the construction trades," Norman said.