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$19.8 Billion Added for Hurricane Recovery
President Bush on June 15 signed into law H.R. 4939, a $94.5 billion emergency supplemental spending bill to fund continuing operations in Iraq and recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast.
Funding for hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma recovery efforts includes $19.8 billion for the following:
- Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) — $5.2 billion for disaster relief, long-term recovery and infrastructure restoration. The legislation caps the amount that any one state can receive at $4.2 billion.
- Education Assistance — $285 million for both schools serving displaced K-12 students and grants for colleges and universities
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund — $6 billion to replenish this fund, plus $400 million for a pilot project on alternative sources of emergency housing (Katrina cottages)
- Small Business Assistance — $542 million
- Levee Repair/Flood Control — $4 billion for armoring critical areas of the levees in New Orleans, raising levee heights for the Lake Pontchartrain and the West Bank, reinforcing/replacing floodwalls in New Orleans and other flood control efforts
At one point in the process there was a proposal to pull $140 million from the CDBG portion of the bill to compensate a private company in Mississippi whose operations had suffered hurricane damage, but was not going to be fully compensated by insurance. NAHB urged lawmakers to preserve every dollar of CDBG money for recovery efforts and the proposal was subsequently dropped.
For more information, e-mail Greg Brown at NAHB, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8421.
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