NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana – President Obama is being pressured by a bipartisan Louisiana congressional delegation to back a bill worth billions in federal aid for the state’s flood victims.
The flood relief package is advertised to aid Louisiana flood victims who were hit with unprecedented flooding in August, with most of the money helping homeowners to rebuild their properties as over 80 percent of residents in the region did not have flood insurance.
The state’s all Republican delegation, with the exception of Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-New Orleans), was unspecific on the details and timeline for the $2.8 billion package that Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) has requested.
“It is crucial that a Louisiana supplemental disaster funding component be included as part of a funding bill,” the Louisiana delegation wrote, according to the Associated Press. “To facilitate and expedite consideration of a Louisiana supplemental spending package, we request you to make a supplemental appropriations request to Congress.”
In Edwards’ initial letter to Obama, asking for billions in flood relief assistance, the newly-elected Democrat asked for $2 billion, as Breitbart Texas reported. However, that figure was most recently updated to include an extra $800,000.
Edwards said the funding was needed as some 15 percent of Louisiana flood victims are estimated to never apply for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has been criticized for its response.
In previous media reports, specifically the Los Angeles Times, the state’s GOP lawmakers were immediately attacked after the flooding for requesting federal aid, while they opposed pork-barrel spending that was packaged into previous disaster relief spending for the victims of Superstorm Sandy.
“They’re all likely exemplars of another Washington truism: fiscal responsibility is great, until it’s your own district that’s getting fiscally hammered,” the LA Times wrote at the time. “Then Job One becomes working to “help the residents of the threatened areas in their time of need.”
The LA Times slammed House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) for questioning the impacts of climate change, writing that they “are also climate change deniers, a sign that they’re unable to process evidence in front of their own eyes,” as Breitbart Texas reported.
John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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