Congress could be one step closer to eliminating issues over federal duplication of benefits rules for flood victims.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy’s office announced today that provisions the senator sought as part of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act were added to a Senate bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration.
If approved, homeowners who qualified for Small Business Administration loans but refused them could also seek reimbursement from the Restore Louisiana program, an action that previously has been restricted.
Last month, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Director Ben Carson acknowledged the need for relief for certain homeowners caught in the so-called duplication of benefits trap.
“There are thousands of people in the great floods of 2016 who were told to get an SBA loan and then found that they could not get a Restore Louisiana recovery grant because of some dumb quirk in the law,” Cassidy says in a video released today. “It makes no sense for these folks trying to do the right thing, doing what they’re told, to then be denied access to a Restore Louisiana recovery grant. This bill fixes that.”
Once H.R. 4 passes the Senate as amended, a conference committee will be convened with the House to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, although the duplication of benefits clause is also in the House version of the bill.
