Louisiana’s congressional delegation request for a 100-percent Federal Cost Share of debris removal from Hurricane Laura receives approval from President Trump. Senator Bill Cassidy says both COVID and two hurricanes have exhausted several communities with recovery efforts. Cassidy says this is great financial news for those areas devasted by Laura.
“The 30-days that the state picks, so presumably the most expensive 30-days of debris removal, but it’s a look back so the state and cities would have entered into these contracts with an eye towards fiscal responsibility,” said Cassidy.
The 100 percent of federal cost-share will last for a continuous period of 30 days. Before the request was amended by Congressional members, cities and parishes were required to pay 25-percent of debris removal.
Cassidy says this will take the burden off local communities.
“And the debris is moving, you’re going to have 30-days where things really pile up. So, he’s going to cover that for us with a 100-percent and that is fantastic,” said Cassidy.
The Department of Transportation and its contractors alone have removed more than 1.4 million cubic yards of debris.
Cassidy says this isn’t the first time Trump has approved a 100-percent cost share, it was approved in 2018 for Hurricane Michael and it prompted their request for the same for Louisiana.
“So, he’d done it once before, but again he wanted to do it in a way which is also responsible to the federal taxpayer,” said Cassidy.
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