BILL FOR STATEWIDE FLOOD RELIEF READY FOR HOUSE FLOOR

ST. PAUL – A bill Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, authored to provide $17 million for recovery efforts in the wake of last summer’s flooding is ready for a vote by the full Minnesota House.

Knoblach chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, which Wednesday night approved the bill, H.F. 164, in short order with wide bipartisan support. It cancels previously enacted but unspent dollars from past natural disaster bills in 2011 and 2012 and includes $2.2 million in new spending.

“I felt it was extremely important to get this through the House committee process as soon as possible to help the people who were impacted by floods,” Knoblach said. “I am pleased that the Senate is moving on this bipartisan bill, too, and look forward to it soon reaching both bodies for a full vote.”

The package includes $13 million in a Federal Emergency Management Agency match, as well as smaller appropriations for disaster spending by the Department of Transportation ($3 million) and the Board of Water and Soil Resources ($2.5 million). It also provides around $5 million for state-only disaster relief spending through the state’s recently created natural disaster contingency fund.

This relief is in response to statewide flooding which occurred last June and July, eliciting a federal disaster declaration. It covers 47 counties and three tribal governments.

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