BATON ROUGE -- Gov. John Bel Edwards reiterated a previous request to federal officials demanding interpretation of the Duplication of Benefits penalty, one of the biggest roadblocks to Livingston Parish and other areas working to recover from the flood events of 2016.In a letter to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson, Governor Edwards requested that the secretary and… Read more »
Louisiana anglers will get to fish more waters for more days than normally allowed for red snapper for the next two years under a newly approved test program.Federal officials approved Louisiana's request to oversee the snapper seasons, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said today.The Exempted Fishing Permit, or EFP, will allow the agency to oversee snapper fishing in… Read more »
Louisiana Congressmen Garret Graves and Steve Scalise issued the following statements today as the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) approved Louisiana's Gulf Exempted Fishing Permits, which signals significant commitment from the federal government to recognize the economic benefits and vitality of the recreational fishing sector in the Gulf of Mexico. The… Read more »
Today, Congressman Garret Graves announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded a grant in the amount of $23.5 million to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development to help Louisiana communities repair highways and roads that have suffered serious damage from the 2016 flood. "This tranche of money will allow our state to repair and rebuild portions… Read more »
One year after the Great Flood of 2016, a cadre of delegates from Washington, D.C., brought HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson to little Livingston Parish to view the recovery.Well, the good doctor probably thought it was fairly little.His comments at the subsequent news conference appeared the right words to say, at the time, and he vowed that – with help from the delegates that brought… Read more »
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is making a handful of tweaks to the National Flood Insurance Program to inject more private money into the government-dominated flood insurance market.Officials at FEMA plan to loosen rules around private insurers offering their own flood policies and have taken on nearly $1.5 billion in reinsurance from more than two dozen companies to help offset… Read more »
Today, Gov. John Bel Edwards and U.S. Rep. Garret Graves announced that the federal government will allocate an additional $1.213 billion in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding for hazard mitigation projects in parishes that were impacted by the 2016 floods. "This new investment from HUD is critically important to our rebuilding efforts. It will allow us to make investments… Read more »
"This new investment from HUD is critically important to our rebuilding efforts. It will allow us to make investments in flood risk reduction and infrastructure projects in areas of our state that were devastated by the 2016 floods, including partnering with the Army Corps of Engineers to make investments in large-scale projects, such as the Comite River Diversion Canal. Once we have the… Read more »
The announcement that the Louisiana Legislature will be making a serious effort toward funding and, in due time, finishing the Comite River Diversion Canal brings a bit of hope to the Capitol Region drainage situation.Last year, state Rep. Valarie Hodges and Congressman Garret Graves ramped up their campaigns to see the canal completed. In the wake of the Great Flood of 2016, the movement… Read more »
