The wheels of Congress turn slowly, but two HUGE roadblocks to rebuilding have finally gone away.
Tucked into the new supplemental funding bill are provisions waiving both the 10% local match on federal money AND the repayment of federal emergency disaster loans.
These are the "strings" which have been preventing large-scale infrastructure projects from getting going. Requiring local communities to kick in a 10% match on federal money was always laughable, considering the total obliteration of the sales and property tax base in the disaster zone. Ditto for the repayment of disaster loans.
You can read about it here.
With these waivers come huge opportunities. Louisiana can put its anemic "Road Home" rebuilding fund on steroids; NOLA can move ahead
with its recovery zones.
This is a really, really, really big deal. Both these provisions should have been waived in the first weeks after the storm, just as they had for every major disaster (and some minor ones) since the 1980's. They should have been knocked out during Pelosi's "100 hours." Now, thanks to Sen. Mary Landrieu and Rep. Jim Clyburn, New Orleans & the gulf coast are finally positioned to take some large-scale steps to recovery.