BATON ROUGE – Today, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) met with President Joe Biden in St. John Parish. They discussed recovery assistance for Louisiana and are touring hurricane damage together.
During their visit, Cassidy emphasized the need for emergency assistance for those affected by Hurricane Ida. He also stressed the need for Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) supplemental assistance for needs related to Ida, and the 2020 hurricanes that affected Louisiana. Those includes Hurricanes Laura and Delta.
“Met the president at the tarmac. We spoke about the need for resiliency. We agreed putting power lines beneath the ground would have avoided all of this. The infrastructure bill has billions for grid resiliency. We also spoke about the needs of southwest Louisiana. And he said that he is committed to it and that it will happen in the upcoming annual budget. We must make sure that everyone in Louisiana and the northeast U.S. is cared for after this disaster,” said Dr. Cassidy.
Cassidy has repeatedly demanded CDBG-DR assistance for those affected by Hurricane Laura and Delta, and added Hurricane Ida to that list in a letter to the President yesterday, joined by Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) and U.S. Representatives Steve Scalise (R-LA-01), Garret Graves (R-LA-06), Mike Johnson (R-LA-04), Clay Higgins (R-LA-03), Julia Letlow (R-LA-05) and Troy Carter (D-LA-02). In the letter, they requested “substantial and robust emergency appropriations from Congress to provide relief to Louisiana families that continue to languish as a result of these devastating storms.”
Background
In addition to the Louisiana Congressional Delegation’s letter to the President on September 2, On Sunday, Senators Cassidy and his colleagues urged President Joe Biden to grant a major disaster declaration for Louisiana following Hurricane Ida. Following the letter, the major disaster declaration was issued, which releases disaster relief for Louisiana to begin its recovery.
In January of 2021, Louisiana requested $3 billion to address unmet recovery needs after Hurricane Laura. Cassidy and Louisiana’s Congressional Delegation have previously called on Congress and the White House to support disaster relief for southwest Louisiana. They continue to press their colleagues to approve the measure. Cassidy will work to prevent similar delays for relief from Hurricane Ida.
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