Eagle Times Staff
BURLINGTON, VT — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Rep. Becca Balint (VT-AL) have sent a letter to majority, minority and Appropriations Committee leadership in the Senate and House of Representatives urging them to ensure that Congress passes federal funding for essential recovery and long-term disaster mitigation work in Vermont following the devastating flooding that hit the state this summer.
In the letter, the delegation also called for increasing the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s cap for hazard mitigation, making Small Business Administration loans forgivable in order to save small businesses, renters, and homeowners from taking on additional debt after experiencing a disaster, and expanding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s emergency grant relief for impacted Vermont farmers, as well as opening eligibility for retroactive enrollment in the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program.
“As Vermont continues to respond to, and begins the recovery from, ongoing catastrophic flooding, we urge you to pass federal funding that meets the needs of our state, with a significant focus on funding for long-term disaster recovery and mitigation work. We ask you to move this funding expeditiously, so important federal resources for disaster response and recovery become available to states like Vermont as quickly as possible,” wrote the Vermont delegation to congressional leaders.
Small businesses, farming and rural communities, and individuals all suffered heavy losses, including anywhere between 145,000 and 686,000 acres of agricultural land across the state.
Water and wastewater infrastructure was also severely damaged, including the wastewater facility in Johnson, which was completely destroyed and will likely cost upward of $10 million to replace. State inspectors have classified five dams as high hazard and 22 as significant hazards — leaving the state at significant risk for loss of life and property during future storms.
Read the letter at: https://tinyurl.com/yc7zbtc9.
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