President Continues 100% Funding for Certain La. Disaster Recovery Projects

President George W. Bush has made additional disaster assistance available to the State of Louisiana by authorizing an extension of 100 percent federal funding for certain eligible costs.

Debris removal and emergency protective measures, including those involving direct federal assistance, will be reimbursed at 100 percent of the costs incurred through the new deadline of Jan. 15, 2006. These projects fall under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Public Assistance program.

“This additional federal funding will help Louisiana recover from the unprecedented impact of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to work with our state and local partners,” said Scott Wells, federal coordinating office for FEMA. “To date, we’ve made great progress in helping Louisiana with debris removal operations, providing temporary structures and equipment for schools and funding programs to repair or replace infrastructure damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.”

Under the President’s order, effective Jan. 16, 2006, federal funding for projects reimbursed through FEMA’s Public Assistance program will be authorized at 90 percent of total eligible costs. Normally, the federal share of disaster recovery for Public Assistance is 75 percent. This share has been increased because of the scope of this disaster.

The funding deadline has been extended twice before by the President. Under the major disaster declarations issued for Louisiana for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, federal funding for these Public Assistance projects was set at 100 percent of the total eligible costs for 60 days after the President’s major disaster declaration of Aug. 29, 2005.

The President amended his declaration on Oct. 22 for Katrina and on Oct. 26 for Rita, extending the time period for 100 percent federal funding through Nov. 26, 2005. With this extension, the time period for 100 percent funding runs through Jan. 15, 2006.