THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

            PRESIDENT CLINTON ANNOUNCES FEDERAL RESPONSE 
                          TO HURRICANE FLOYD
                            February 4, 2000

     President Clinton, today, announced that the Federal Government is

making available more than $6 billion to help affected states recover from flooding and other damage caused by Hurricane Floyd.

Overview

• The Federal Government has made more than $6 billion available to assist affected states recover from the flooding and other damage caused by Hurricane Floyd. These funds are derived from FY 2000 enacted appropriations, both regular appropriations and supplementals contained in the November 1999 consolidated appropriations bill. An additional $304 million is needed in FY2000 to handle remaining unmet needs from Hurricane Floyd, which the Administration will request in the form of supplemental appropriations. Among Federal agencies, USDA, FEMA, and SBA have provided the bulk of disaster assistance, with North Carolina being the largest recipient.

Highlights by Major Agency/Activity in FY2000 Floyd Supplemental

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): $77 million to fully fund all eligible buyouts of damaged homes in the 100-year flood plain (another $215 million was appropriated for this purpose last year).
• Small Business Administration (SBA): $51 million supplemental appropriation for loan subsidy and administrative costs so SBA may respond fully to Hurricane Floyd (an amount that will support an additional $141 million in loans).
• Economic Development Agency (EDA): $25 million supplemental appropriation to enable EDA to work with development districts and states to plan long-term economic development and recovery in areas affected by Hurricane Floyd. With the additional funding, EDA will issue planning and technical assistance grants to development districts, provide revolving loan funds to capitalize economic development loans made by local organizations, and provide infrastructure repair and improvement grants.
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): $13 million to make payments to fishermen affected by Floyd and other hurricanes ($11 million) and to repair a NOAA facility ($2 million) in North Carolina.
• Army Corps of Engineers (ACE): $19 million to address dredging and emergency navigation work related to Hurricane Floyd. Also, the ACE's FY2001 budget provides $2 million for restoring beaches in North Carolina.
• Interior: $11 million is requested for: the U.S. Geological Survey ($2 million) to repair and replace stream monitoring equipment and structures, the Fish and Wildlife Service ($5 million) to repair damaged and destroyed property, and the National Park Service ($4 million) to replace damaged structures, facilities, and other park infrastructure.
• Defense: $27 million to fund repair costs to facilities affected by Hurricane Floyd, including buildings, roads, and other infrastructure.

USDA:

• Authorization language will be proposed to allow $50 million in previously appropriated Emergency Conservation Program funds to be used for repairing farm structures and equipment damaged by Hurricanes Floyd or Dennis, or Tropical Storm Irene.
• The Administration will request forgiveness of up to $81 million in USDA commodity price-support loans made to producer-owned marketing associations that suffered losses to the commodity collateral from Hurricanes Floyd or Dennis, or Tropical Storm Irene. In a number of cases, crops were damaged by natural disaster after the associations had purchased them from member-producers. These crops cannot be sold by the associations at the price they paid producers for them and, in order to repay the USDA loan, the member-producers would have to pay to cover the losses. Forgiving a portion of the loan would reduce or eliminate these additional producer payments.

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