Obama Signs Flood Protection Bill

President Barack Obama signed a bill into law today that will provide Louisiana with significant flood protection and the construction of key coastal restoration projects.

Sen. David Vitter was at the bill's signing and says this legislation authorizes hurricane flood protection for Terrebonne and Lafourche Parish.

"They have little to no hurricane flood protection now, and to run hand in hand with that are the key coastal restoration projects which are approved and are moving forward," Vitter said. "Those two things need to work together."

Vitter says the authorization for the Morganza-to-the-Gulf flood protection and six Louisiana Coastal Area projects go hand-in-hand, because coastal land loss needs to stop and levees and other structures need to be built.

He says now the parishes need money for these projects, but for the first time they have a number of funding sources coming together.

"Federal appropriations, sure. But even more importantly, revenue-sharing from oil and gas activity in the Gulf," Vitter said. "And BP settlement money."

Vitter says in order to nail down the funding for these critical projects, there will still need to be battles fought and it will take some time.

However, he said he's optimistic that this will happen, because it's the first time in his life that major projects like this have been approved.