SE North Carolina News

WASHINGTON, DC - During a Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management hearing on "The Impacts of FEMA’s Strategic Plan on Disaster Preparedness and Response" Congressman David Rouzer (NC-07) questioned Erik Hooks, Deputy Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on the efficacy of natural disaster recovery programs.

Congressman Rouzer emphasized how under the current federal disaster recovery process, it can take years for homes to be rebuilt and for communities to return to a state of normalcy. He went on to emphasize how this is the current situation in North Carolina's 7th Congressional District where Hurricane Florence survivors are still waiting for assistance from FEMA.

Rouzer highlighted his legislation, the Natural Disaster Recovery Program Act, which would cut unnecessary red tape and streamline the disaster recovery process by authorizing a simple block grant program for disaster assistance to states impacted by federally declared disasters.  Such a program would allow states and localities to properly address the unique needs of disaster survivors.

Click here on the image above to watch Rep. Rouzer's remarks. 

Full remarks:

"FEMA does, in my opinion, a very, very good job up front in terms of response and saving lives. I can tell you from my personal experience, one of my frustrations as a Member of Congress is [when] a hurricane comes through, you have all this damage, you know what your needs are, Congress passes an appropriations bill, we put in a significant amount of money for the [Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR)] program. And then it takes three, four, or five years for any money to go out the door. And in the meantime, another Member of Congress has had a storm in their district, and they take all my money. 

"Well, we know how that works. So, I've got a bill to help correct this. It's the Natural Disaster Recovery Program Act, and basically what it does – forget everything anybody knows about CDBG-DR – it puts in place a true block grant facilitated through FEMA where you take the unmet need, Congress appropriates the money, Congress appropriates 50 percent of the money up front that goes to the states. If that is used appropriately, and that's verified by an audit by the state, whether it's state auditor or whoever, [they] report back to the Appropriations Committees and the Committees of authorization – that checks out, they get the other 50 percent – it's immediate. 

"Rather than all this finger pointing between the state and the federal government about, ‘oh, you know, you got to have this work plan, etc., it's got to be proved at HUD.’ You have all kinds of miscommunication, and it just takes forever. I have victims from Hurricane Florence [that] still have no help recovery help. So, anyhow, personally I think simple is better. Simple is easy to implement. Simple is easy to enforce"

Original source can be found here.