Source: United States Senator for Kentucky Mitch McConnell
LOUISVILLE, KY – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced today the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will provide Kentucky with $48,983,000 through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program to help the Commonwealth recover from disasters that occurred last year. Senator McConnell helped secure these funds by including additional resources for the CDBG-DR program in the Continuing Resolution to fund the government that passed the Senate and was signed into law earlier this year.
Today’s CDBG-DR funding will help Kentucky recover from several major disasters that occurred in the Commonwealth in 2021, including last December’s devastating tornado outbreak in Western Kentucky and the flooding in Eastern Kentucky during February and March of 2021.
The CDBG-DR program provides highly flexible funds for long-term recovery in communities affected by natural disasters. According to HUD, these funds can be used for a variety of purposes, including helping local governments cover their cost share of federal disaster recovery programs from other agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Highway Administration. Communities can also use these funds to help rebuild homes and businesses and promote economic development.
“Eastern and Western Kentucky are still recovering from the disasters that hit the Commonwealth in 2021 and need all the help they can get to keep rebuilding. Working with local officials, I’ve leveraged my leadership role in the Senate to secure federal funding from several initiatives to assist these communities, including directing more resources to the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program,” said Senator McConnell. “Today’s announcement will help areas affected by last year’s disasters fill gaps not funded by other state and federal programs and will allow them to continue recovering quickly.”
“I would like to personally thank Senator McConnell for his continued commitment to our region. Since the devastating flooding last year, Senator McConnell has not only been on site multiple times, but is always just a phone call away. His ability to secure more federal funding is invaluable and a sign that we will continue to rebuild. The catastrophic flooding that occurred this year highlights that the need for infrastructure and housing funding at the local, state, and federal level is ongoing,” said State Senator Brandon Smith.
“Senator McConnell promised to stand with Mayfield for as long as it took for us to recover from last year’s tornado outbreak. As today’s funding announcement demonstrates, he has kept that promise time and time again,” said Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan. “We are deeply thankful for all the resources the Senator has helped our city secure. He continues to listen to his constituents’ needs and make sure our voices are represented on the federal level.”
“Breathitt County is still rebuilding from the 2021 flood even as we work to recover from this summer’s disastrous flooding. Senator McConnell has advocated for our community to ensure we receive the federal dollars we need to bring our community back better than before. We appreciate his work on our behalf and willingness to leverage his leadership role to put Kentucky first in federal disaster recovery,” said Jackson Mayor Laura Thomas.
“Bowling Green still faces an enormous challenge as we work to recover from last year’s tornadoes, which destroyed homes and displaced families all across our city. Senator McConnell has played an instrumental role in helping us speed that process along, using his influence in the Senate to direct several rounds of federal funding to help us rebuild. We are incredibly grateful for his work on behalf of our community and the close contact he has maintained with Bowling Green’s leaders,” said Bowling Green City Manager Jeff Meisel.
Senator McConnell has played a key role in helping Kentuckians affected by last year’s disasters recover. In March, he secured an additional $75 million from the CDBG-DR program to help Eastern and Western Kentucky recover from last year’s flooding and tornadoes, respectively. Earlier this year, he secured significant resources in the Fiscal Year 2022 Government Funding bill to help affected communities, including requiring FEMA to increase federal disaster response funding from 75% to 90% of disaster costs. This increase in federal resources immediately provided more than $20 million to communities impacted by previous disasters and will provide millions more for communities still rebuilding.
Senator McConnell visited several communities hit by last December’s tornadoes, which were the most destructive in the Commonwealth’s history, and last year’s floods. Along with the rest of Kentucky’s congressional delegation, the Senator supported the Governor’s multiple federal disaster relief requests to the President and created a web portal to help Kentuckians access federal resources.
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