The US House passed a bill that would allow Louisiana residents impacted by the 2016 floods to become eligible for grant money, even if they received low interest loans to help with their recovery. Baton Rouge US Representative Garret Graves, the bill’s sponsor, says this opens up recovery money to thousands.
Graves says that the bill would make "thousands of people eligible for Restore Louisiana grants even if they received a loan or were approved for a loan."
Graves says current recovery grant rules punish homeowners who didn’t want to wait for the feds to come through.
Graves expresses, "We should be rewarding or thanking people who were proactive and sought loans so they could get back on their own two feet, not penalizing them."
Graves says they also managed to fix a few other issues from the 2016 flood with this legislation.
Graves says, "The fix for the I-12 flood barrier allowed for reimbursement of people that were proactive. It provided a lower cost housing solution; it provided an arbitration process outside of FEMA."
The bill received near unanimous support in the House. Now they wait to see if the Senate approves.