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Mississippi Tornado Recovery Efforts Get Eased Cost-Share Requirement

August 12, 2010

Senate Included Cost-Share Adjustment in FY2010 Emergency Supplemental Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today reported that the

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has affirmed that it will lower the cost-share requirements on public assistance offered to Mississippi following a series of devastating tornadoes in April and May.

Pursuant to a congressional mandate Cochran supported in the FY2010 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill (wwwcochran.senate.gov/press/pr073010a.html)

(PL.111-212), FEMA is implementing a 90-10 federal/nonfederal cost-share ratio for

federal disaster assistance offered following the fatal tornadoes, storms and flooding that tore through Mississippi on April 23-24 and May 1-2.  This aid usually requires a 75-25 cost-share match.

"Easing the cost-share requirements on this disaster assistance is intended to lessen the financial hardships faced by tornado and storm victims in Mississippi.  These severe spring storms damaged rural and impoverished areas where meeting nonfederal cost-share requirements could compound the stress on already strained state and local budgets," Cochran said.

Following the April 23-24 storms, a presidential disaster declaration was issued make to local governments and certain private, non-profit organizations eligible for FEMA public assistance funding to support debris removal and the repair or replacement of disaster-damaged facilities.  This declaration covered Attala, Choctaw, Holmes, Issaquena, Monroe, Warren and Yazoo counties.

Alcorn, Benton, Marshall, Panola, Prentiss, Tippah, Tishomingo and Union counties were made eligible for the same type of assistance following severe storms and tornadoes on May 1-2.

Cochran is vice-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee that funds FEMA.  In addition to the 90-10 percent cost-share provision, the emergency spending law also provided $5.1 billion to replenish the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund.  While Congress debated the supplemental bill, the fund had less than $900 million available to respond to disasters around the country-like the Mississippi tornadoes.

In addition to helping Mississippi, the supplemental bill also offers the 90-10 federal/nonfederal cost-share ratio for eligible recovery costs associated with recent natural disasters in Tennessee, Kentucky and Rhode Island.