Gov. John Bel Edwards travels to Washington D.C. today to push Congress for more federal flood aid.

This is the governor’s 6th trip to the nation’s capital since the August flood. Edwards says we’ve received $1.6 billion in grant money so far but another two billion is necessary to get victims back in their homes..

“We just have to stick together, make sure we’re that we’re making the wisest use of our available resources and we cannot be bashful about asking for the resources that we need to help our fellow Louisianans.”

Edwards says as part of the $2 billion, he’s looking to receive federal assistance to construct flood mitigation infrastructure so homes in flood zones are not forced to elevate.

“If we could better control flood waters and actually lower base flood elevation that would seem to make sense.”

Edwards says he will meet with all members of the Louisiana Congressional delegation today to discuss his ideas. He says one of his proposals is to allow flood victims to use grant money to pay off Small Business Administration loans.

“We would like to be able to use CDBG money to help people repay those loans. That’s very important because right now that’s considered a duplication of benefits and federal law doesn’t allow it.”

A release from the governor's office stressed that funding for this D.C. trip is not coming from taxpayer money.

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