Chertoff: Hazard mitigation money should not go to Louisiana

New Orleans CityBusiness, Feb 3, 2008

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday President Bush should veto the SMART Act written by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans, which allows Louisiana to use $1.17 billion in hazard mitigation grants to complete funding for The Road Home program.

Chertoff wrote DHS "opposes the legislation" and "if a bill containing such provisions were presented to the president, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill," in a letter to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, Secretary Landrieu said Chertoff is mistaken.

"This bill will free $1.17 billion in already appropriated funds from federal red tape that has kept it from storm survivors trying to rebuild," Landrieu said. "It streamlines the grant process for homeowners, giving them money to elevate their homes up front and ensures pioneers who have already begun protecting their homes from future storms will be reimbursed. It is a common-sense solution to a bureaucratic problem, with no additional cost to the federal government, and my Senate colleagues understood this.

"But today the administration threw another wrench in the effort by threatening to veto the bill when it reaches the president's desk. Secretary Chertoff's letter opposes each of the pragmatic solutions in the bill that peel back red tape and make The Road Home program whole.

"I will continue to fight to get this bill through Congress, and I hope the administration reconsiders this ill-advised letter."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had been allowiong the state to use HMGP money for Louisiana's housing program. FEMA has only deemed about 10 homes eligible for hazard mitigation. HMGP grants can be up to $30,000 for elevation and up to $7,500 for other types of mitigation.

The SMART Act directs FEMA to use HMGP money for The Road Home, streamlines FEMA's review process so payments are fast-tracked to homeowners and reimburses those who have already begun elevation work. It was approved by the Homeland Security Committee in August and set to be passed by the Senate in December. But a last-minute objection to the bill prevented it from being approved prior to Congress recessing for the holidays.

Homes more than 50 percent damaged by flooding must be elevated, which affects 36 percent of Orleans Parish Road Home applicants. Recognizing elevation and other disaster mitigation steps are key elements of rebuilding, Louisiana designated the $1.17 billion in HMGP disaster mitigation funds to be combined with The Road Home program. But FEMA blocked the combination because the program reduced grants for people who left the state and exempts senior citizens from this penalty -- a policy FEMA calls "discriminatory." The approach advocated by Chertoff would essentially discourage rebuilding and drive hurricane-affected homeowners out of the state, Landrieu said.