Press Releases

U.S. Congressman Garret Graves sent a letter to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge urging that Lafourche, Terrebonne, Jefferson, St. Charles, St. John and other parishes receive recovery funding directly. Under the current allocation, only the City of Baton Rouge will receive 2021 disaster funds directly.

In addition, Graves expressed concern about new funding criteria for victims of hurricane and flood disasters that could redirect aid to areas and individuals with less damage. The new criteria came after Louisiana received $1.7 billion yesterday in hurricane and flood recovery funding. Graves will continue to work to secure relief for additional south Louisiana communities impacted by recent natural disasters.

"As we all know, hurricanes and floods do not discriminate. These disasters affect us all. HUD has introduced new criteria that have not been approved by Congress. We have strong concerns that this could be an attempt to politically direct funding rather than simply getting the dollars to those most impacted and those with the greatest need. It took HUD six months to simply say how much total funding would be available for Louisiana's hurricane and storm victims. The last thing we need is some opaque, discriminatory process that further delays and distorts recovery funding to our impacted families," Graves said.

Graves questioned HUD's reference to "historically marginalized communities" and "underserved communities, especially communities of color" and how this may be affect assistance to Cajun and native communities.

Click here to read the letter.

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