WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Gov. John Bel Edwards met with senior HUD officials last week to identify federal restrictions that are making it more difficult for Louisiana's flood victims to rebuild.

“Gov. Edwards and I met with HUD officials to continue work on ironing out the problems that are arising with the rebuilding process,” Sen. Kennedy said.  “It was a productive meeting, and we will continue to work together until every home and business impacted by the March and August floods is rebuilt.”

The issues discussed included:

• The necessity of conducting environmental reviews of homes repaired with disaster funding through community development block grants.
• Amending the requirement that 70% of CDBG dollars benefit low to moderate-income residents. The governor is proposing lowering this to 50%.
• Giving homeowners and business owners more time to apply for the reimbursement of money they spent to rebuild immediately after the disaster before federal aid arrived.  Currently, the application process shuts off a year from the disaster.
• Allowing flood victims to repay their Small Business Administration loans with block grants.

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