Just two weeks after a critical joint House committee hearing, the House on Wednesday approved a bill to break a federal impasse on rebuilding public housing after a disaster.
The bill, which was done on a bipartisan basis and passed on a voice vote, removes a conflict between FEMA and the Housing and Urban Development Administration over funding. The Public Housing Disaster Relief Act, (H.R. 6276), would remove the HUD program to make way for the FEMA funding.
Newly elected U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, R-Miss., who was a floor manager of the bill, said it represented “a common sense approach” to remove the barrier that “has stalled federal dollars” from being used to rebuild the Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
House Financial Institutions Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said, “This is no special deal for Louisiana and Mississippi. This simply provides public housing’s fair share.”
Magnolia Tribune
