Congressman Carter Praises Bipartisan Duplication of Benefits Relief Provision Inclusion in the Wildfire Response Improvement Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Troy A. Carter, Sr. (D-La.) and Garret Graves’ (R-La.) bill to extend the Duplication of Benefits (DoB) relief provision in the Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA) of 2018 was included as an amendment to H.R. 7070, the Wildfire Response Improvement Act. Without this legislation, current and future disaster victims will continue to be at risk.

“Louisianians know better than anyone that storms are staying for longer, coming on stronger, and leaving more havoc than ever before. In their aftermath, many depend on federal government resources to rebuild their homes and businesses,” said Rep. Carter. “No one should be penalized for taking advantage of a loan when they later learn about a grant to get them back on their feet. We should not add insult to injury for people who are trying to rebuild. The federal government should be there to make it easier and more accessible for people to reestablish themselves. Yet, some of these backward policies have made it harder for those suffering to access resources. I want to thank my colleague Congressman Garret Graves for working in a bipartisan manner to resolve this issue which has hurt so many.”

“Whack-a-mole, moving the goal posts… call it what you want. Bureaucrats have worked hard to prevent Louisiana flood victims from getting the congressionally mandated disaster assistance needed to rebuild south Louisiana communities. Flood waters don’t discriminate, but federal bureaucrats sure do,” said Rep. Graves. “We promised the remaining 2016 Flood victims that we were not going to stop until they receive the relief that they deserve. This is just one of the many efforts in our multi-pronged strategy – we’re glad to see this advancing in the House, but we’re not going to give up until folks are made whole.”

Background

After the 2016 Flood, the Louisiana delegation secured $2.9 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds to help flood victims rebuild and protect our community from future flooding events.

However, recovery funds promised to victims were reduced or eliminated if a homeowner had qualified for a federal disaster recovery loan from the Small Business Administration (SBA). Because the homeowner was already approved for federal relief, HUD stated it would be a “duplication of benefits” for them also to receive a federal recovery grant from the CDBG-DR program. While SBA loans are required to be repaid to the federal government, CDBG-DR grants were one-time payments to victims and do not require repayment.

In 2018, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee included language in DRRA to clarify that a loan is not duplicative of a grant because the federal government makes different kinds of assistance available at different times after a disaster.

But, when HUD implemented this DoB fix, the agency said that a loan is still considered duplicative of a grant if a homeowner makes more than 120 percent of the area median income (AMI). As a result, many remaining DoB homeowners were prevented from accessing the grant dollars, even if they had simply applied for a loan and never received it. The AMI requirement did not apply to original flood victims, only those who had received eligibility through the DRRA DoB fix. Carter and Graves’ legislation clarifies that HUD cannot use an additional income test to determine eligibility for duplication of benefits relief.

Watch Rep. Carter’s remarks on this bill in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee here.

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