[StBernard] Senate Committee Passes Landrieu Bill to Rebuild Police and Fire Stations

[Westley Annis]

Thank goodness.  Our Firefighters have been more than patient throughout
this rebuild process.

I'm all for safety.  That's why I want a new firestation, operational and
equipped, an emergency training facility  and designated greenspace too.

SJK


-----Original Message-----
Senate Committee Passes Landrieu Bill to Rebuild 

Police and Fire Stations

Bill also applies FEMA case management,

housing reforms to Katrina/Rita recovery.

 

WASHINGTON - The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today
in a 13-to-3 vote passed a bill by United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu,
D-La., that would allow fire and police stations and other facilities to
receive a single Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) payment to
rebuild. Local governments have been forced to go through FEMA's complicated
Public Assistance process to rebuild law enforcement facilities on a
building-by-building basis.

"This bill takes the success we have achieved in removing red tape in the
rebuilding of schools and applies it to our fire stations and law
enforcement facilities," Sen. Landrieu said. "Up to this point, our local
governments have been forced to cycle through the morass of FEMA paperwork
and backward rules that its public assistance requires. We need the same
speedy rebuilding process for our first responders that has already
benefited our school children." 

The legislation also eliminates FEMA-imposed cost-share penalties for local
governments that want to improve police and fire station structures when
they rebuild rather than replicating a hurricane-destroyed building. Senator
Landrieu was able to pass similar legislation for schools as part of the
omnibus appropriations bill last year. It included no-cost language she
authored to allow school districts impacted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita
to receive single FEMA payments to rebuild. 

The bill also gives FEMA the retroactive authority to provide case
management services to survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Post
Katrina Emergency Reform Act, which passed in 2006, reformed the Stafford
Act to allow FEMA to fund case management -- but despite Sen. Landrieu's
efforts, this change was not made retroactive to Katrina and Rita cases.

"Case managers work with families to address their ongoing needs, from
housing to utilities to health care," Sen. Landrieu said. "I have been
saying since the storms that Gulf Coast hurricane survivors need these
services, and now the Committee has passed legislation to help our
families."

The bill also gives FEMA retroactive authority to implement a pilot program
that funds and repairs rental units damaged by Katrina and Rita. It includes
several provisions already passed by the House last year in the Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita Recovery Facilitation Act of 2007, HR 3247. They include
reducing the cost share for improving public buildings to 10 percent from 25
percent and authorizing the President to provide housing to volunteers who
contribute to disaster recovery when it is cost-efficient to do so.