White House Statement on Disaster Assistance for Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii, and Guam

The President today made available emergency appropriations for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). These funds will provide assistance in Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii, and Guam to victims of Hurricanes Andrew and Iniki and Typhoon Omar.

These funds were appropriated in Public Law 102 - 368, the Dire Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1992, which was signed into law on September 23, 1992. These funds were made available contingent upon the President submitting budget requests to the Congress and designating the amounts requested as emergency requirements. Forwarding these requests for $160 million in budget authority for HUD and $57.3 million in budget authority for the Department of the Interior will automatically make the funds available.

In submitting this request the President said:

I am disappointed that the Congress has directed that any use of the $60 million provided for HUD's HOME investment partnership program funds by States and localities be conditioned upon a proportional use of public housing funds. Public housing new construction often requires 5 or more years to complete and consequently cannot provide the immediate assistance required by these disaster victims. I am therefore asking the Congress to allow the Secretary of HUD to transfer any of the $100 million provided for public housing new construction to other HUD housing programs that are able to work more quickly and efficiently to meet the immediate housing needs in these disaster areas.

The requested amounts for Interior are as follows:

$30 million to meet the emergency needs for areas in the western United States stricken by drought;

$1.3 million to document the extensive erosion to the Louisiana barrier islands caused by Hurricane Andrew;

$1.5 million for the National Wetlands Research Center to assess and monitor the ecological response of Louisiana wetlands to Hurricane Andrew; and

$24.5 million for a grant to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to restore damage to fish and wildlife resources caused by Hurricane Andrew.