David Price: “I thank my colleague for yielding. Madam Chair, I do want to speak in strong support of this amendment which may well be…”

“I thank my colleague for yielding. Madam Chair, I do want to speak in strong support of this amendment which may well be the most important amendment to be offered this morning. I certainly think that with respect to my home State of North Carolina where thousands of residents are eagerly awaiting the issuance of the Federal Register notice which this amendment references. This notice will unlock billions of dollars, CDBG disaster mitigation funds, to rebuild communities in North Carolina, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Georgia, and other locations. Now, to be clear, while the underlying bill addresses the damage from Hurricane Florence which hit North Carolina last September, this Federal Register notice we are discussing addresses damage from Hurricane Matthew and from other storms, 2016 and 2017 disasters, where we are still awaiting relief and recovery. Secretary Carson promised during our subcommittee hearing last month that the notice we are talking about today would be released on May 1, and as far as HUD was concerned that was achieved. But now it is OMB, it is the White House. They prevented this notice from being released. This so-called review appears to be a change in practice. That is not acceptable. North Carolina residents have endured two hurricanes in the past 3 years. They and other storm victims around this country should not have to endure more stalling and more slow-walking from President Trump.…”