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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release May 20, 1996

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

The President made available today $189.3 million in "contingent" emergency funding to address urgent needs arising from the consequences of recent natural disasters.

These disasters include severe winter flooding in the Pacific Northwest, the blizzard and subsequent flooding in the Northeast, and damaging hurricanes.

The $189.3 million in contingent funding comes in addition to about $750 million in regular disaster assistance; both were provided under Public Law 104-134, the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996.

Under this law, the President had to declare that more assistance was necessary to release the contingent funds. The President made the declaration today.

The funds have been made available to the following agencies:

$107.9 million for the Department of Agriculture. Of this amount, $80.5 million would be available to the Natural Resources Conservation Service to support disaster assistance measures, including removing debris that obstructs water flow and repairing over-topped levies, dikes, and other flood retarding structures. The remaining $27.4 million would be available to the Forest Service for damage repair.
$18.0 million for the Department of Commerce. These funds would be made available to the Economic Development Administration in order to: provide technical assistance for disaster recovery coordinators; develop recovery strategies; and implement recovery projects.
$63.4 million for the Department of the Interior, to be made available to the following bureaus: $16.2 million to the Bureau of Land Management; $18.4 million to the Fish and Wildlife Service; $13.4 million to the Park Service; $0.8 million to the U.S. Geological Survey; $7.1 million to the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and, $7.4 million to the Office of Insular Affairs.

Today's announcement does not include other regular and contingent funds that, under this law, will be available in the coming weeks. That funding includes flood recovery assistance for the Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Small Business Administration.

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