Press Releases

Congressman Garret Graves advanced legislation in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to provide relief to the stranded, remaining Duplications of Benefits (DoB) victims of the 2016 Flood. Federal bureaucrats denied flood victims access to home rebuilding grants if they had accessed loans.

Following the Flood of 2016, Congress approved $1.7 billion in grant funding for flood victims to rebuild their homes. Under a flawed federal policy, these funds were reduced or eliminated if homeowners had qualified for a federal disaster recovery loan, which must be paid back, even though jobs and incomes were often washed away with the flood.

Graves' legislation enacted in 2018 eliminated this red tape. The new law removed the policy treating loans and grants as the same money, which resulted in millions in critical rebuilding funds for homeowners. Nearly 80 percent of flood victims received assistance under this new law. Despite the win, undeterred bureaucrats invented new income thresholds that prevented recovery funding from getting to many disaster victims. Because flood waters don't discriminate, Graves argued that flood recovery funds shouldn't discriminate and that communities should recover holistically, not based on a tax return.

Graves' recent actions eliminate the remaining hurdles invented by bureaucrats which have blocked assistance to those that received a Small Business Administration (SBA) Disaster Loan.

"The law change we made in 2018 resulted in an estimated 80 percent of 2016 flood victims receiving recovery assistance. We committed to continuing fighting for the 20 percent left behind. We were able to secure $1.7 billion in funding for disaster victims. Here we are over five years later and less than 40 percent of the money has been given to flooded homeowners. That is unacceptable. We didn't fight for these dollars to create a slush fund to enrich contractors. The singular purpose of the money is to help get people back on their feet and our economy restored. I have never fought so hard, and so long, against a federal agency – that was created to develop housing – that was so dead set against disaster recovery – for homes. I would never invite Louisiana's disasters on any human being, but I hope others may quickly, and deeply appreciate, the utter disaster that is federal assistance after a major natural disaster. This is why we constantly author bills and amendments to fix America's awful disaster recovery execution. We've worked to get every last DoB victim the relief they deserve, and this effort is another way to reach that goal. I want to be clear – we fixed this federal law in the Disaster Reform and Recovery Act of 2018. As a result of our legislation, the vast majority of DoB victims have gotten help. Unfortunately, HUD butchered the law and is sandbagging the solution for a number of families across South Louisiana. We are continuing to work until every last victim has been helped. It is ridiculous they continue to penalize flood victims for stepping up to be more proactive, and we will keep working every opportunity to make sure SBA complies with the law and that SBA considers the factors before unfairly and wrongfully punishing the remaining victims," Graves said. "Providing the relief shouldn't cost a penny more. We secured the funds, the law is fixed, and now we are having to legislate again just to get these bureaucrats out of the way."

Graves continues to work on legislative solutions to deliver relief to Louisiana's 2016 remaining DoB flood victims. Click here for a list of some of Graves' actions to fix DoB.

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