{"id":88050,"date":"2018-01-15T09:30:52","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T14:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=88050"},"modified":"2018-01-14T22:04:56","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T03:04:56","slug":"tenney-local-flooding-highlights-critical-need-to-pass-fema-reform-legislation-in-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=88050","title":{"rendered":"Tenney: Local flooding highlights critical need to pass FEMA reform legislation in Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rep. Claudia Tenney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tenney calls on Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to lead the way in bringing relief to Upstate New York flood victims; urges\u00a0FEMA to expedite appeal of major disaster declaration denial<\/p>\n

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22) expressed deep disappointment in the Senate\u2019s inaction on the Disaster Declaration Improvement Act, H.R. 1665. In light of flooding that today affected areas of the Mohawk Valley including Whitesboro and Ilion, Tenney is renewing her call for the passage of this critical Federal Emergency Management Agency reform legislation. The House passed H.R. 1665 on May 3, 2017. The bill now sits idly in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

In reaction to today\u2019s flooding, Tenney\u00a0immediately contacted FEMA to notify the agency about the flooding damages and to underscore the importance of federal assistance. Additionally, Tenney is\u00a0calling on FEMA to expedite Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u2019s Jan. 2 appeal of the agency\u2019s denial of New York State\u2019s request for a major disaster declaration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to change the antiquated process so all communities that have been impacted by devastating flooding can be eligible for the federal assistance they desperately need. The Disaster Declaration Improvement Act will finally level the playing field for Upstate communities that are disadvantaged by FEMA\u2019s current disaster assessment formula. Our Senators in New York must lead the fight in urging the Senate to take up and pass this important fix,\u201d\u00a0said Tenney.<\/p>\n

FEMA\u2019s current process for damage assessment disadvantages counties in populous states as too often local communities that sustain significant damages do not qualify for the federal assistance they need and deserve. The Disaster Declaration Improvement Act would direct FEMA to give greater weight and consideration to localized damage when determining eligibility for federal disaster assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust last month, we saw the failures of the current assessment firsthand as a claim for federal assistance was denied by FEMA.\u00a0A major disaster declaration would have gone a long way to help families and municipalities recover from last summer\u2019s extreme weather and excessive flooding. Following FEMA\u2019s denial of the request for a major disaster declaration, I called for an immediate appeal\u00a0and was pleased to see the state take action by filing an appeal earlier this week,\u201d\u00a0Tenney continued.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve seen many of these properties firsthand, and continue to visit property owners as our region continues to experience damaging floods. The scope of damage that property owners have sustained over the past year is beyond the response capabilities of state and local governments and should warrant targeted federal recovery assistance. This important legislation will ensure this is the case in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tenney called on Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to pass this legislation in July, and again in November when President Trump signed the\u00a0FEMA Accountability, Modernization and Transparency Act of 2017 into law. Read Rep. Tenney\u2019s letter\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tenney calls on Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to lead the way in bringing relief to Upstate New York flood victims; urges\u00a0FEMA to expedite appeal of major disaster declaration denial Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22) expressed deep disappointment in the Senate\u2019s inaction on the Disaster Declaration Improvement Act, H.R. 1665. In light of flooding that today affected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23810,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/79326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}