Landrieu Presses Obama On Disaster Recovery Fund

“Based on the latest estimates from FEMA,” Sen. Landrieu wrote, “the DRF is expected to be exhausted in June.  This shortfall is largely the result of past catastrophic and major disasters, such as Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike, the Midwest floods of 2008, and the Tennessee floods of 2010.”

Sen. Landrieu warned the president, “In the absence of an emergency supplemental request from you, the House Republican Leadership has decided to include $1.565 billion of non-emergency funding” in the FY 2011 budget—funding that would be offset with cuts to the budgets of “the Coast Guard, FEMA, and State and local first responders and emergency managers, the very agencies that are responsible for preparing for and responding to future disasters.”

Sen. Landrieu acknowledged, “It is true that in these tough economic times, it is critical that we make disciplined funding decisions,” but she added, “it makes no sense to strip agencies of the resources they need to prepare for future disasters in order to pay for the costs of past disasters.  We simply cannot return to the days when FEMA could not do its job.”

Sen. Landrieu wrote, “Last year, FEMA was forced to stop making payments for over five months to my state and states across the nation for recovery efforts from past disasters.”  She advised the president that the need for emergency supplemental funding will only increase over the next three years.  “In addition to the $1.565 billion that is necessary to continue disaster recovery this year, FEMA estimates that $6 billion will be required in FY 2012-2014 to pay for the recovery costs of past catastrophic disasters.  Such funding simply cannot be accommodated within the existing budget of the Department of Homeland Security.”

To read the full letter to President Obama, please visit http://landrieu.senate.gov/mediacenter/upload/02162011lettertopotus.pdf