BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Gov. John Bel Edwards tangled with Republican members of Congress on Wednesday over Louisiana’s response to damaging flooding last year.
The Advocate reports (https://bit.ly/2oJwJvb ) that GOP congressmen from Utah, Kentucky, Georgia and other states took turns blasting Louisiana’s effort, in combative exchanges with the Democratic governor. The hearing was streamed live online.
U.S. House Oversight Committee members also questioned the Federal Emergency Management Agency and contractor CB&I about an 84-year-old blind man found dead inside a FEMA-issued manufactured housing unit. The unit allegedly had a faulty heating system.
“The federal government fell on its face, and the state didn’t do too much to help either,” said Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican.
When Edwards graded his administration’s flood response a B-plus, Georgia Rep. Jody Hice said that sounded “like a very generous grade when there is so much destruction.”
After the hearing, Edwards said he stands by the grading as it pertained to search and rescue and other actions taken by the state in the immediate aftermath of the flooding, not the long-term recovery.
“I thought that the way they asked the question and used it after that was misleading and unfair,” he said.
Edwards was pressed repeatedly for an exact number or estimate of residents who haven’t returned to their flood-damaged homes since the March and August flooding. He said it was difficult to calculate because some may be living with family or have other accommodations but there are “thousands.”
“You know how bad that looks right?” Chafettz asked in response. “You’re that clueless?”
Congress has set aside $1.6 billion in federal disaster aid, on top of FEMA assistance, to help with recovery. Edwards said repeatedly the money hasn’t reached residents because the federal government hasn’t finalized the line of credit for Louisiana to draw down the funds.
“These are people who are in desperate need of housing and simply had to wait too long,” Chaffetz said. “It’s April and they are still waiting.”
U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, a Baton Rouge Republican who participated in the hearing and has been a vocal critic of the flood recovery, said he was disappointed by the governor’s effort to “circle the wagons and continue to defend” the state’s role in roadblocks to recovery.
Edwards replied that Graves is “needlessly adding to the frustration and anxiety of homeowners.”
Louisiana’s only Democratic congressman, U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond of New Orleans, said in a statement that he was disappointed the tone of a hearing that “was supposed to look for solutions to problems with the flooding recovery instead was another example of typical Washington partisanship.”
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Information from: The Advocate, https://theadvocate.com
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