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Hagan continues to push for supplemental disaster funding
Story Date: 9/12/2011
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Source: PRESS RELEASE, 9/9/11
U.S. Senator Kay R. Hagan (NC) was encouraged today by the Administration’s formal request for $500 million in supplemental Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to support recovery from Hurricane Irene. Hagan is also working to ensure the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) can fund disaster relief to farmers affected by Hurricane Irene.
“In eastern North Carolina we are just starting to pick up the pieces left by Hurricane Irene,” said Hagan. “FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which pays for individual and community assistance after declared disasters, is running dangerously low, leaving our storm-ravaged communities hanging in the balance. I am encouraged that the Administration today formally transmitted its request for additional disaster relief funding, and I will continue pushing Congress to pass a bill and get it to the President for his signature.”
Earlier this week, Hagan wrote to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee to provide robust supplemental disaster relief funding. Hagan’s letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee can be found here.
The formal request from the White House can be found here. In addition to the $500 million request to meet this fiscal year’s needs, the Administration also requested an increase to the Disaster Relief Fund of $4.6 billion for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2011.
“Agriculture is a critical part of our economic engine in North Carolina, and our North Carolina farmers bore the brunt of Irene’s damage,” said Hagan. “During an aerial tour of eastern North Carolina, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack indicated that the crop flooding in North Carolina was among the worst he had ever seen. I will not rest until both FEMA and the USDA have the resources they need to get our North Carolina communities back on their feet.”
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