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Washington – Today, Senator Bill Cassidy, MD, along with the entire Louisiana congressional delegation sent a letter to Julian Castro, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), urging him to quickly distribute $500 million in recently appropriated flood recovery funds via the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. Vitter and the delegation made the case that Louisiana deserves the bulk of the funding, and reminded HUD that the language of the law clearly states that the funding is for storms prior to enactment of the Act.
“We know money has a greater impact if it comes sooner rather than later,” said Dr. Cassidy. “The administration must act quickly in distributing the available flood recovery funds so struggling families can know that help is on the way.”
“After the deadly thousand-year flooding disaster in August, thousands of Louisianians are still displaced from their homes, and we need to do everything we can to help them restore some semblance of normalcy as the recovery efforts continue,” said Sen. Vitter. “One of the quickest ways to do that is for HUD to start distributing the $500 million in federal disaster relief funds so that Louisiana families can move back into their homes.”
“Folks across my district are still hurting from two floods this year. I’ve been in their homes and seen the devastation first hand. HUD must move as swiftly as possible so we can get them on the road to recovery,” said Dr. Abraham.
“We cannot allow bureaucratic delays to further victimize the tens of thousands of families whose lives were turned upside down by this historic flood disaster,” said Rep. Graves. “It’s critical that we quickly get this financial assistance into the hands of flood victims.”
“We urge you to act swiftly to expedite and disburse the recently appropriated Community Development Block Grant funding to help with flooding disasters, the vast majority of which is clearly meant to help flood victims in Louisiana,” wrote the Louisiana congressional delegation.
Last week, the Congress passed a continuing resolution that contained $500 million in federal disaster assistance that is expected to mainly be used for Louisiana flood recovery, following the deadly, historic flooding disaster in South Louisiana in August and the Red River flooding earlier this year. HUD is responsible for distributing the funds to states with disasters in 2016, and Louisiana is expected to receive a major portion of those funds through the CDBP program. To read more, click here.
Signing today’s letter to Secretary Castro are U.S. Sens. Vitter and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), and U.S. Reps. Charles Boustany, M.D. (R-La.), Steve Scalise (R-La.), John Fleming, M.D. (R-La.), Cedric Richmond (D-La.), Ralph Abraham, M.D. (R-La.), and Garret Graves (R-La.).
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