An even 100-million dollars is being allocated for emergency Midwestern flood relief by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the majority of that 100-million is coming to Iowa, which had widespread flooding during June that demolished several thousand homes.
Grassley says, "We did get 85-million of HUD money yesterday announced for the state of Iowa, which can be used with a lot less strings attached for the cities than the FEMA money." Two other states will share the 100-million in federal funds, with ten-million going to Indiana and five-million to Wisconsin. Grassley says the HUD money is for community development block grants — which he explains.
Grassley says, "A block grant is money that comes to cities that has a lot more flexibility in how cities can spend it, like in helping businesses to recover as opposed to just city infrastructure."
The HUD funding that was allocated on Monday was part of a spending bill that was signed into law by President Bush on June 30th. It included more than 2.6 billion dollars in disaster funding.