Congress The Senate advanced the $36.5B disaster spending bill passed by the House, setting up a vote by the full Senate tomorrow.  HUD HUD Allocates CDBG-DR to Texas. HUD allocated $57.8 million to Texas for Hurricane Harvey recovery through the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program on October 20. The funds were… Continue reading

Congress Senators Blumenthal (D-CT) and Cassidy (R-LA) sent a letter to FEMA Administrator Brock Long requesting that he immediately enter an Interagency Agreement with HUD to ensure survivors of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria have access to stable, affordable rental homes. With this agreement, HUD would be able to utilize its existing programs and network… Continue reading

General Updates Potential Misappropriation of Funds. Four members of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Rob Bishop [R-UT-01], Bruce Westerman [R-AR-04], Doug LaMalfa [R-CA-01], Jenniffer González-Colón [PR], sent a request to FEMA Administrator Brock Long requesting a briefing on the recovery efforts. The request is in response to the FBI San Juan Field Office’s announcement… Continue reading

General Updates Emergency Funding. The Senate may take up the $37 billion disaster supplemental spending bill on Friday. The House version of the bill provided the disaster recovery funding requested by the White House, but did not include additional funding requested by the Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico delegations for additional CDBG-DR funding, among other… Continue reading

General Update On October 13, seven Senators, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Christopher Murphy (D-CT), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Cory Booker (D-NJ), sent a letter to FEMA Administrator Brock Long urging him to immediately approve Puerto Rico’s request for Permanent Work Public Assistance (also referred to as Categories… Continue reading