How to resolve AdBlock issue? The White House said Thursday that President Trump signed into law H.R. 2157, the “Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019.” The president is reported to have signed the bill on Air Force One, while traveling in Europe.
The bill will provide $19.1 billion “to help Americans recover from the catastrophic disasters that have struck the nation in the past three years,” the White House reported.
HR 2157 includes:
– $4.5 billion to the Department of Agriculture for agricultural-related losses, emergency timber restoration, farmland repair and watershed recovery work to help American farmers and ranchers. That amount includes $720 million for the U.S. Forest Service to strengthen forest management efforts.
– $3.3 billion for the Corps of Engineers to repair damage caused by natural disasters, to invest in new flood and storm damage reduction projects, and to make the nation more resilient to future natural disasters. That includes $1 billion funding to address 2018 and 2019 floods, which could provide critical support in Lake, Glenn, Butte and Colusa counties.
– $349.4 million to repair local drinking water systems – including the water system in Paradise, destroyed by the 2018 Camp fire.
– $1.6 billion to the Department of Transportation for the Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief Program and additional resources for wildfire suppression activities conducted by the United States Forest Service.
It also reauthorizes the National Flood Insurance Program through Sept. 30.
“President Trump is committed to securing funding for and improving the implementation of policies that mitigate the risk natural disasters pose to communities and make the Nation’s recovery from disasters vastly more effective,” the White House signing statement said.
"I want to thank President Trump and Congress for bringing much-needed relief to communities impacted by wildfires and other natural disasters. This legislation will bring our state critical disaster funding to help Californians rebuild and recover,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The bill had the staunch support of both of Lake County’s members of the House of Representatives.
Mike Thompson – representing the Fifth Congressional District, including the southern half of Lake County – and John Garamendi, whose Third Congressional District covers the county’s northern portion, had both voted for the bill and urged the president to sign it.
The bill passed the House of Representatives in a 354 to 58 vote and the Senate by 85 to 8.
Thompson’s office reported that the bill had involved a “lengthy negotiation process,” and that it includes key provisions to help North Bay wildland fire disaster recovery efforts.
In a statement issued earlier this week following Congress’ passage of the bill, Thompson said the legislation “includes critical funding to help our district recover from recent fires, provisions I fought to include to help us recover and rebuild.”
Those provisions include $100 million in Community Development Block Grant funding that can be used to help communities with unmet needs. “That will allow us to continue with debris removal, funding housing and repair infrastructure that was damaged in the October 2017 fires. The bill also includes funding to help small family agricultural producers whose crops were damaged by disaster like the wildfires and wildfire smoke in our district,” Thompson said.
More specifically, Thompson’s office said the bill includes funding to help Lake County grape growers whose crops were damaged by the Mendocino Complex fires.
“Natural disasters fueled by climate change have wreaked havoc on nearly every corner of the United States in recent years,” Garamendi said. “This legislation provides critical services to help communities recover from recent disasters and to prepare for any similar events in the future.”
Garamendi said he was proud to work with his colleagues in the California Congressional delegation to secure presidential approval of Gov. Newsom’s major disaster declaration, as well as his work with Thompson to extend USDA’s Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program to cover crop losses stemming from the 2018 and 2019 natural disasters, including California winegrape growers with smoke-tainted grapes from fires.
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