The month of August is over and the Labor Day holiday has passed. That means that officially our hired hands, also known as Congress, are finally back at work. One of the primary objectives of Louisiana's Congressional delegation in these first days back in session will be securing federal money for our state's flood victims.

Under the current federal disaster declaration the federal government reimburses the state .75 cents on the dollar spent for flood claims. If congress approves additional disaster assistance that amount would be raised to .90 cents on the dollar.

United States Senator Bill Cassidy is optimistic that Louisiana's Congressional delegation can push the disaster relief funding through both houses of congress quickly. In remarks he made to the Louisiana Radio Network Cassidy explained what he hopes will happen.

If you go in there you can show that you need, this is what was affected by the flood, this is how we can make things better, then the American people are pretty generous.

Governor John Bel Edwards has penned a letter to the White House outlining the extent of the flooding in our state. In that letter the Governor mentioned that over 80% of the homes affected by the high water did not have flood insurance.  President Barack Obama has toured a portion of the state where the flood damage was extensive.

Senator Cassidy is hopeful that the Governor's letter and the President's personal inspection will go a long way in securing the federal dollars being requested.

We're in different stages of recovery, bottom line though, we're going to push to get those resources so that at whatever stage we are in recovery, we'll have what we need to complete the job.

Just to be clear the federal monies would go to help residents in 49 Louisiana Parishes. This would not be specific to the areas along I-10 that suffered flooding in August but to many north Louisiana residents who were impacted by high water earlier in the year.

 

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