Seven weeks from the storm's impact and now there is a Federal Senate Appropriations Bill that will provide funding to a whole host of Federal agencies. The big number is $60B, but the trickle down impact is via this long list of agencies getting the funding. $11B to FEMA for the Disaster Relief fund that will only jump start what state and local jurisdictions will need. See Summary: FY13 Disaster Assistance Supplemental for a quick recap of the numbers and the allocation of resources.
Just yesterday i was blogging about mitigation. There is $3B in the bill for mitigation, a mere 5% of the total of funding. Better than nothing I guess and hopefully just a down payment on what is going to be needed long term to fix the issues that caused all the damages. A big one is people occupying space in hazard areas where they should not be living.
If I was a Sandy Survivor I'd be hopeful, but ... this is a slow process, legislatively and administratively. It will be months before funding from this bill is impacting people on the street.
Jerry Quinn shared the link to the bill.
