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Senator Bill Nelson

Florida ranks first in Takata airbag deaths and injuries

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Florida continues to lead the U.S. and its territories in the number of people killed and injured by exploding Takata airbags, according to new numbers released today by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL).

Takata airbag ruptures have been linked to three deaths and 83 injuries in Florida. Moreover, injuries in the state have risen by almost 400-percent since December 2014.

Puerto Rico, Texas, California and Georgia round out the top five with the most deaths and injuries from defective Takata airbags. Nearly three-fourths of all U.S. casualties occurred in the four states and the territory of Puerto Rico.

“These numbers show that we still have a huge problem with getting these dangerous airbags replaced and off our highways,” said Nelson, who serves as the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the automakers. “Consumers should heed the recall warnings and get their vehicle repaired as soon as possible. Failure to do so could result in death or life altering injuries.”

Honda vehicles with defective Takata airbags accounted for all three deaths and 55 of the 83 injuries in Florida. Toyota ranked second with 13 injuries reported in the state.

The state-specific numbers were tallied from information provided to Nelson by the 19 automakers that use Takata’s non-desiccated ammonium nitrate-based inflators.

Nelson also reported on Friday that only 45 percent of the Florida vehicles under recall for Takata airbags had been fixed as of mid-April, according to data obtained from the Takata Independent Monitor. In total, 1.3 million recalled vehicles have yet to be repaired in Florida.

Release of the new numbers comes in advance of a hearing the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will hold next week on the nomination of Heidi King to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which ordered the Takata recalls. Nelson intends to seek a commitment from King that, if confirmed, she will speed up efforts to get the exploding airbags replaced.

Consumers who wish to check whether their vehicles are under active recall due to defective Takata airbags can visit the U.S. government’s website at SaferCar.gov.

Sen. Bill Nelson’s remarks on president withdrawing from Iran deal

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) took to the Senate floor this evening to blast the president’s decision to withdraw from the Iran deal, and expand on comments he made shortly after the president’s announcement this afternoon.

“The president says he wants a better deal. Well, so do a lot of us,” Nelson said. “But by pulling out of the Iranian nuclear deal, it is a tragic mistake. It will divide us from our European allies, and it will allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon, a nuclear bomb, within a year.”

“Right now is the time to continue ramping up the pressure on Iran – not to back off, as pulling out of the agreement is going to do,” Nelson continued. “Let’s keep restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program – the lessened enriched uranium, the complete cementing over of the plutonium plant, the ability to inspect and to verify. And then what we ought to be doing is doubling down on Iran’s ballistic missile programming, on their regional aggression, on their support for terror, and on their human rights violations.”

“It was the tough U.S. and international sanctions that brought Iran to the table in the first place, and it was us in this Congress that enacted many of those economic sanctions,” Nelson said. “Pulling out of the Iranian nuclear agreement now is a tragic mistake.”

Rush transcript of Sen. Nelson’s remarks:

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson
Remarks on the Senate floor
May 8, 2018

Sen. Nelson: Mr. President, the president just announced that he will withdraw the United States from the Iranian nuclear deal. The president says he wants a better deal. Well, so do a lot of us.

The fact is, we need to keep pressure on Iran with additional economic sanctions to stop them from developing ICBM missiles. That was not part of the Iranian nuclear agreement. We need to ratchet up the pressure on Iran to do that — to stop their ICBM missile program.

But by pulling out of the Iranian nuclear deal, it is a tragic mistake. It will divide us from our European allies, and it will allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon, a nuclear bomb, within a year as compared to staying in the agreement, which would be at least seven to 12 years in the future. And keeping an atomic weapon out of a radical religious outfit like Iran, headed by an ayatollah, I think it is clearly in the free world’s interest to keep a nuclear weapon out of Iran’s hands. It certainly is for the free world. It is for the United States, clearly, and it’s for all of our allies.

And that’s why we had such broad support joining the U.S. In coming to an agreement that Iran not build a nuclear weapon. Pulling out of this agreement risks all of the unprecedented restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program that are already in place right now. The hundreds of visits by the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency; their ability to get in behind locked doors. Before this agreement, we never had that kind of insight into Iran.

And right now is the time to continue ramping up the pressure on Iran not to back off, as pulling out of the agreement is going to do.

So first things first, let’s keep restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program – the lessened enriched uranium, the complete cementing over of the plutonium plant, the ability to inspect and to verify. And then what we ought to be doing is doubling down on Iran’s ballistic missile programming, on their regional aggression, on their support for terror, and on their human rights violations.

It was the tough U.S. and international sanctions that brought Iran to the table in the first place, and it was us in this Congress that enacted many of those economic sanctions. And so, to sum up, we need to put more pressure on Iran with additional economic sanctions to stop them from developing their ICBM missiles.

But pulling out of the Iranian nuclear agreement now is a tragic mistake. It will divide us from our European allies, and it will cause Iran to build a nuclear bomb within a year instead of preventing it from building one for at least 7 to 12 years. That seems to me to be a choice that we made at the time, that we agreed to. This agreement, it seems all the more clear today, that we ought to continue the agreement.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Nelson, others question termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians

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U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA) today led a group of a dozen U.S. senators in calling on the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to explain what they call a “deeply troubling and potentially politically motivated” decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians in the United States.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and USCIS Director Lee Francis Cissna, the senators point to an Oct. 2017 USCIS report that described current conditions in Haiti as “vulnerable to external shocks and internal fragility,” and further concluded that Haiti is “unable to adequately respond to a wide range of persistent humanitarian needs.”

Yet, despite its own assessment, one month later USCIS and Homeland Security rescinded TPS for 58,000 Haitians in the U.S and characterized the situation on the island as no longer needing the designation.

“The November 2017 decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation marked a stunning reversal of this assessment of the conditions in Haiti,” the senators wrote. “Moreover, in light of the president’s widely reported offensive comments about Haiti and African nations being ‘s***hole countries,’ these documents raise serious questions regarding whether the Administration’s decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS was based on the conditions in Haiti – as required by law – or whether the decision resulted from broader political concerns, including an animus towards the country and its nationals.”

The senators called for the immediate reconsideration of the administration’s decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation.

In addition to Nelson and Markey, the letter was signed by U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Tina Smith (D-MN) Cory Booker (D-NJ), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL).

The lawmakers’ letter can be found here.

Nelson visits Puerto Rico as post-storm recovery continues

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) was in Puerto Rico today to meet with local residents and get a firsthand look at several areas still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria.

The visit was Nelson’s fifth to the island, and third since the storm.

Nelson, who has been an outspoken proponent of providing Puerto Rico additional funding to help the island recover from the hurricane, started the day by meeting with Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Housing Fernando Gil Enseñat in Carolina to get a firsthand look at a recently completed, federally-funded housing project. Local officials thanked Nelson for his help in getting Congress to approve the funding needed for the project.

After seeing the type of work being done to provide additional housing for residents on the island, Nelson headed to Las Piedras, one of Puerto Rico’s most underdeveloped areas where up to 30 percent of the town still does not have electricity after the storm.

“This is unacceptable,” Nelson said about the conditions in Las Piedras. “It’s been eight months since the storm, and we will continue to fight to ensure Puerto Rico is treated the way it should be.”

Before leaving Las Piedras, Nelson got a firsthand look at one of Tesla’s solar energy projects in Barrio Montones. The pilot project, which began in March 2018, provides electricity to 12 homes on top of a mountain that would not otherwise have electricity following the storm. Nelson’s visit to see the solar project comes just days before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is set to hold – at Nelson’s request – an oversight hearing on the island’s ongoing power woes in the wake of Hurricane Maria. The hearing will be held on May 8.

After visiting with residents in Las Piedras, Nelson met with Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and First Lady Beatriz Rosselló.  Nelson expressed his condolences for the nine Puerto Rican Air National Guard members lost this week when their C-130 crashed in Georgia. Nelson and Rosselló then headed to Guaynabo to announce a new housing initiative that will solidify housing for dozens of Puerto Rican families.

Finally, Nelson visited Caño Martín Peña Ecosystem Restoration Project to get a firsthand look at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project to clean out the once-navigable channel that’s now clogged with debris. Now blocked, the clogged canal poses a serious health threats to the nearly 26,000 residents who live in nearby communities as untreated sewage entering the canal is unable to properly move through it.

Florida lawmakers call for 500 more Customs officers

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Additional officers would create jobs, cut wait
times for international travelers arriving in state

Florida lawmakers today called on Congress to provide the funding needed to hire an additional 500 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers next year to help address staffing shortages at many of Florida’s airports and seaports.

The lawmakers’ request came in a letter – led by U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) – and sent to the top Democrat and Republican members of the House and Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittees.

“The Joint Economic Committee has found that while the volume of commerce crossing our borders has more than tripled in the past 25 years, CBP staffing has not kept pace with demand,” the lawmakers wrote. “Long wait times and delayed processing of goods discourage travel and create unnecessary barriers to trade, undermining economic activity in the United States. CBP estimates show that hiring an additional 500 CBP officers at ports of entry would increase annual economic activity by $1 billion and result in an additional 16,600 jobs per year.”

CBP officers are charged with enforcing U.S. customs, immigration and agriculture laws at air, land and sea ports across the country. They are separate from CBP Border Patrol agents who patrol the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders to prevent illegal entry into the country.

Officials at many of Florida’s airports and seaports have, for years, raised concerns over the shortage of CBP officers in Florida, which they say often causes frustratingly long wait times for international travelers arriving in the state – discouraging some from ever returning.

CBP, itself, admits it needs to hire an additional 2,516 CBP officers to operate at full capacity. Congress approved $7.6 million for the agency to hire an additional 328 CBP officers earlier this year. Florida lawmakers want the agency to hire another 500 officers next year.

In addition to Nelson and Rubio, the letter was signed by U.S. Reps. Reps. Charlie Christ (D-FL), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Val Demings (D-FL), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Al Lawson (D-FL), Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), Tom Rooney (R-FL), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Dennis Ross (R-FL), Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL).

A PDF copy of the letter is available here.

Nelson, Rubio file bill to help homeless veterans

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U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced legislation today to improve and protect a joint U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program designed to help homeless veterans find permanent housing.

The so-called HUD-VASH program provides homeless veterans with a voucher to help them offset the cost of renting a home or apartment in the private market. To help protect the program from any potential future budget cuts, Nelson and Rubio’s bill would, among other things, prevent the administration from using any funds specifically-designated for the program on anything other than helping to provide housing to homeless veterans.

“The brave men and women who have served in our armed forces have made incredible sacrifices to protect our freedoms,” Nelson said. “We have a responsibility to provide them with the very best care that we can.”

“We must continue to provide our nation’s veterans the quality care they were promised and deserve,” said Rubio. “This legislation would make much needed improvements to the HUD-VASH program so that it can more effectively assist homeless veterans and their families.”

Veterans who receive a HUD-VASH voucher are able to rent a privately owned home or apartment while contributing no more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. The homelessness program made headlines last year when the VA announced plans to shift more than $460 million that had been specifically designated for such programs into the agency’s general purpose account – essentially, defunding the program altogether.

The move infuriated veterans and veterans organizations across the country who spoke out against the administration’s plan. Facing a growing backlash, the VA eventually reversed its decision and announced on Dec. 7 that it will keep the program funded through Oct. 2018. If approved, Nelson and Rubio’s bill would require the agency to keep the HUD-VASH program funded permanently.

The VA’s sudden about-face over funding created more than just a firestorm from veterans groups, it also created confusion within the agency itself – and led, at least, one local VA facility in South Florida to begin rejecting applications for assistance. The sudden spike in rejections caught the attention of Florida lawmakers, including Nelson, who, in turn, immediately demanded answers from the VA about its overall management of the program.

The VA’s responses to lawmakers’ inquiries exposed a need for drastic reforms to the program, including the hiring of additional case managers to improve the program’s overall responsiveness to veterans and ensure that all available vouchers are being made available to the those who need them.

To improve and protect the program, Nelson and Rubio’s legislation would, among other things:

  • Prohibit the VA from moving HUD-VASH funds to a general purpose account. The administration announced last year its plans to shift more than $460 million that had been specifically designated for veterans homelessness programs to the agency’s general purpose account. The move would, in essence, defund the program altogether. Facing a growing backlash from veterans groups, the VA reversed course and later announced it would keep the program funded through Fiscal Year 2018. Nelson and Rubio’s legislation would require the agency to keep the HUD-VASH program funded permanently.
  • Require the VA to hire one case manager for every 35 veterans. In some regions, case managers are assigned up to 70-100 veterans at once, making it nearly impossible to effectively manage them all.
  • Require the VA to expedite the hiring of new case managers. If a case manager position is vacant for 180 days or more, the VA will be required to contract out to a local service provider.
  • Require case managers to be located within a reasonable distance from the veterans they are assigned to help. Some case managers are located as far as two hours away from their assigned veterans.

The legislation now heads to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee for consideration.

A copy of the bill is available here.

Nelson files bill to protect oil drilling safety rules

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Friday marks eight years since 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster

U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL), Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and others filed legislation today to codify two key offshore drilling safety rules put in place after the 2010 BP oil spill.

Specifically, the legislation would codify the “Blowout Preventer Systems and Well Control Rule” and the “Arctic Drilling Rule,” both of which were finalized and put in place under the Obama administration in 2016 to address key safety recommendations made after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The move to make the regulations law comes as the Trump administration, at the behest of the oil industry, seeks to roll back many of the safety requirements put in place after the 2010 spill.

“Today, from 2010 to 2018 – eight years later – the oil industry is trying to roll back those safety requirements that were put in place in the aftermath of spilling five-million barrels of oil into the Gulf,” Nelson said on the Senate floor today. “We can’t allow the Department of Interior to take us backwards in time and expose our beautiful beaches and our tourism-based local economies,  as well as our military, to another Deepwater Horizon-type catastrophe.”

Each rule contains several safety regulations aimed at preventing another massive oil spill from occurring. For example, the “Outer Continental Shelf Blowout Preventer Systems and Well Control Rule” increased design and maintenance standards for blowout preventers, required real-time monitoring of deep-water wells and high-pressure drilling activities, and improved safety standards by requiring drillers to have a mechanism that allows the drill pipe to be properly sheared.

The “Arctic Drilling Rule” sets safety and emergency response standards for offshore drilling in arctic environments. For example, the rule requires operators to have a specialized response plan and containment equipment specifically tailored to the icy weather conditions in the arctic.

If approved, the legislation Nelson and Cantwell filed today would make the regulations law and prevent the administration from rolling them back without Congressional approval.

A copy of the legislation is available here.

Video of Nelson’s speech on the Senate floor earlier today is available here.

Following is a transcript of his remarks:

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson
Remarks on the Senate floor
April 19, 2018

Sen. Nelson: Tomorrow marks another somber occasion, as well, because eight years ago the news ticker came across our television saying that an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was on fire. The Coast Guard was on the scene and workers were missing.

It was a Tuesday night. It was nearly midnight on April 20, 2010. By morning light we knew that 11 men would not be going home again. For 87 days oil gushed into one of the most productive marine environments in the world.

The study showed that the oil impacted the deep water corals and the fish at the bottom of the food chain, all the way from the bottom up to the dolphins and sea turtles at the top. Here is just one example, Madam President – this is in one of the bayous. You can see the marsh grasses in the distance. You can see the oil as it’s coming up, and it’s just literally covering everything.

They did studies on fish that would be in a bayou like this. A little fish that’s about as big as this, it’s called the killi fish. LSU professors did this study and they compared them to the bayous where there was not this kind of oil. Compared it to similar killi fish. What they found over time is the little fish in bayous like this, they were stunted. They didn’t reproduce. They mutated. It’s because of this, nearly five million barrels of oil gushed for three months. And a lot of it is still out there. Some of it’s down at the bottom where that well was in that well head on the sea floor below the rig. It’s a mile deep. We worked as one Gulf community, in a bipartisan way.

We passed legislation – it was called the Restore Act – to send a message that there were going to be fines and penalties. Under the Clean Water Act, so many barrels of oil, a figure and then the culpability of the oil company that allowed it to happen. A federal judge did and extended a trial over several years and came up with that fine and that penalty.

And that Restore Act said that that money that was going to be assessed against the oil company, it was going back to the Gulf of Mexico region. And it was going to aid in the economy and in the environment. And when you have this kind of impact, you can’t imagine, but there was another impact. The winds caught that oil slick and started sending it east from Louisiana. And it got over to the white sugary sands of Pensacola Beach and Destin and tar balls as far east as Panama City Beach. But the photographs of Pensacola Beach completely covered in tar and oil. And those photographs went around the world. And what was the result? Our guests, our visitors, our tourists for an entire season thought the beaches of all of the Gulf of Mexico beaches on Florida were covered like Pensacola Beach was, and they didn’t come for an entire year.

So, not only did you have an environmental effect like this, you had an economic effect like the loss of tourist revenue and the hotels and the motels and the restaurants and the dry cleaners, and the little newspapers, and all the ancillary businesses that depend upon a $60 billion a year tourism industry in Florida. And still I’m afraid that the oil industry hopes that we have all forgotten all of this.

This month, the media released documents from 2016 in which BP claims that an oil spill can be a welcome boost to local economies. Can you believe that? This oil spill was in 2010. And in 2016 we have just uncovered documents that BP claimed that an oil spill can be, quote, “a welcome boost to local economies.” End of quote. How outrageous and how arrogant a statement.

I can assure you that the coastal communities of Florida vigorously disagree, and I bet you the coastal communities that had to put up with that in their bayous would disagree vigorously as well. All that progress, and yet the industry is relentless in wanting to take us backwards. They still want to open up Florida’s beaches and offshore to drilling.

And we have to fight it every day.

One thing that we also have going for us is the Gulf of Mexico off of Florida is the largest testing and training area for the United States Military in the world.

This senator just climbed into an Air Force jet to fly part of the training profile for young pilots knowing that they have restricted airspace. That was out of Tyndall, out of Eglin Air Force Base – the testing and training designee for all of the Department of Defense. We have a range that goes from the panhandle of Florida all the way south in the Gulf of Mexico off of Key West. In one angle shot, they can shoot sophisticated long-range weapons 600 miles to do the testing.

And Big Oil is trying to roll back now some of the basic safety rules that were put in place after the disaster to prevent another tragedy. It’s happening in front of our eyes.

So, two years ago they say that an oil spill can be a welcome boost to the local economies, and today they are rolling back safety environments that were put in place in the aftermath of 11 people being killed on the Deepwater oil rig.

Today, they are rolling that back – in this administration’s agencies. That’s why I’m joining Senator Cantwell and other colleagues today in filing legislation to codify these sensible safety measures, like those designed to update the standards for blowout preventers and a requirement for a third party to certify the safety mechanisms.

Let me explain what a blowout preventer is. It didn’t work in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. A mile below the surface, the wellhead where it comes out of the Earth, there is a thing called a blowout preventer. So a blowout in this Deepwater Horizon, there is a blowout that was supposed to safely cut the oil line, pinch it, and stop it from flowing. It was faulty. It did not work. And so there have been new standards for blowout preventers.

And today, from 2010 to 2018, eight years later the oil industry is trying to roll back those safety requirements that were put in place in the aftermath of spilling five million barrels of oil into the Gulf.
You see, the fight that we have almost every week. We can’t allow the Department of Interior to take us backwards in time and expose our beautiful beaches and our tourism-based local economies as well as our military to another Deepwater Horizon-type catastrophe. And if we don’t watch it and if they keep pushing back these safety rules, and that’s the purpose of filing this legislation today with Senator Cantwell.
If we don’t watch it, we’re going to be right back in the same place we were eight years ago. Eight years ago, to the day tomorrow, that we had that all of experience.

Madam president, I yield the floor.

HHS awards Florida $27 million to help combat opioid crisis

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Following is a comment from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) on news today that the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded the state of Florida an additional $27 million in federal funding to help combat the opioid crisis:

“The nation’s opioid epidemic is a real public health emergency and we need to be doing everything we can to combat this crisis. The only way we’re going to be successful in fighting this epidemic is by providing local communities with the funding they need to bolster their prevention, treatment and recovery efforts.”

The funding comes from a 2016 measure Nelson supported to provide states with $1 billion over two years to combat the opioid epidemic. The $27 million Florida will receive this year is on top of the $27 million it received last year under the law – bringing the state’s total received under the bill to $54 million.

Nelson sponsored legislation earlier this year to provide states an additional $12 billion to fight the opioid epidemic.

Here’s a copy of HHS’s announcement about the new funding:

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)  is releasing the second year of funding to 57 states and territories totaling $485 million to continue the Nation’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis.  The Opioid State Targeted Response (STR) grants, which were created by the 21st Century Cures Act, are administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) within HHS.

STR grants address the opioid crisis by increasing access to treatment, reducing unmet treatment need, and reducing opioid overdose related deaths through the provision of prevention, treatment and recovery activities for opioid use disorder (including prescription opioids as well as illicit drugs such as heroin). Grantees must use funding to supplement existing opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery activities in their state. An additional $1B recently appropriated will be coming out in September 2018.

Nelson urges state to use disaster money to help low-to moderate-income families

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) sent a letter today to the head of Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity urging her to prioritize the needs of Florida’s low-to moderate-income individuals and families as her department decides how to allocate more than $600 million in federal disaster assistance it’s about to receive.

The state of Florida has until May 15 to submit to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development its plan for allocating $616 million in Community Development Block Grants that Congress approved to help the state recover in the wake of Hurricane Irma. The funds, which Congress approved in September as part of a broader $7.8 billion disaster assistance bill, can be used for a wide range of recovery efforts, including to fund repairs to homes and buildings damaged in the storm.

Nelson, who had pushed hard for the CDBG funds to be included in the broader bill, now wants to ensure the state uses those funds to help low- to moderate-income families in Florida who are still unable to find affordable housing in the wake of last year’s storm.

“It’s no secret that Florida’s availability of and standards for adequate affordable housing are severely deficient,” Nelson wrote. “It’s critical that there also be a long-term plan to safeguard against future storms further limiting affordable housing options in Florida.”

“The law requires that no less than 70 percent of CDBG-DR funds should be allocated to eligible activities that principally benefit low- and moderate-income individuals,” Nelson continued. “While the state can request waivers to alter this threshold, I strongly encourage you to preserve current CDBG-DR thresholds at 70 percent, which will help target assistance for those most in need.”

By law, a majority – at least 80 percent – of the $616 million in CDBG funds the state receives must be used to fund projects in Monroe, Miami-Dade, Duval, Lee, Polk, Collier, Brevard, Broward, Orange and Volusia counties.

A .pdf copy of the letter is available here

Florida lawmakers call on FEMA to expedite reimbursement of disaster-related expenses owed to local governments

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U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Carlos Curbelo (FL-26) today sent a letter to FEMA Administrator Brock Long urging the agency to expedite the reimbursement of disaster-related expenses owed to local governments in Florida and elsewhere.

“Local governments are cash-strapped with little to no funding in their budgets to repair damaged communities,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is critical that FEMA responsibly provide local governments with the assistance Congress appropriated to address current damages and the ability to prepare communities for the upcoming hurricane season.”

Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, addressed the issue at hearing the panel held earlier today on hurricane preparedness. “There are some areas where we can and must do better,” Nelson said. “Puerto Rico is an example, Florida is an example. That local governments are still not being compensated for the debris pickup that they have advanced – that is unacceptable.”

Here is a link to video of Nelson’s comments at today’s Commerce committee hearing:

A .pdf copy of the lawmakers’ letter is available here.