T&I Members Press FEMA Administrator on Disaster Readiness, Response & Recovery

Press Release

"Duplication of benefits drives me crazy because I watch our federal government be incredibly inefficient. We have resiliency programs, or mitigation programs, in FEMA, in [Army] Corps of Engineers, in HUD, in Interior, at Department of Agriculture, in NOAA, in many, many others. We explicitly wrote a change in the law in DRRA [Disaster Recovery Reform Act] in 2018 that said that duplication of benefits with the Corps of Engineers programs and HMGP [FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program] does not exist -- meaning you can pay for it through HMGP. Yet, I have watched where FEMA has refused and said that you could not provide HMGP funds through a Corps project that was in the 7,001 report -- and I'll make note, does not mean it's funded. Yet, you've had the situation where Washington, D.C. has gotten funds for tree equity, whatever that is… Meanwhile, Portland has gotten funds through similar programs. So, why is it that if the Forest Service is going to fund urban tree planting, how come FEMA will fund it as well through BRIC [Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities]? Why isn't that a duplication of benefits?"

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