Washington, DC - U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) yesterday offered an amendment to the disaster supplemental package to re-open the Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) Program through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to allow Illinois another opportunity to submit an application to qualify for these important grants. In January, the State of Illinois failed to submit a complete application for Fiscal Year 2018 rendering all communities in the state ineligible to apply for these grants. Unfortunately, House Democratic leadership did not allow the amendment to go the floor.
“I’m disappointed that Democratic House leadership didn’t allow my bipartisan amendment to move forward to the floor,” said Davis. “The amendment had bipartisan support and it deserves floor time. Our communities are experiencing severe flooding right now and they shouldn’t be punished because of the state’s failure to submit a complete application on time. I hope Senators Duckworth and Durbin will have better luck in getting this into the Senate version and I'm happy to do whatever I can to help get this done.”
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The amendment Davis offered was cosponsored by a bipartisan group of lawmakers: U.S. Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL.), Mike Bost (R-IL), Darin LaHood (R-IL), John Shimkus (R-IL), Cheri Bustos (D-IL), Bobby Rush (D-IL), and Alma Adams (D-NC).
FEMA’s response
FEMA responded to questions on Illinois’ ineligibility for the program and confirmed that it was a failure on the state’s part to submit a complete application before the January 31st deadline. FEMA notes in their response that their server logs show that the State of Illinois waited until a few hours before the deadline to finish the application, but that it never submitted a complete application. They also noted that while 1,100 individuals from across the country attended 12 technical assistance webinars provided by FEMA on the grant application process, no one from the State of Illinois participated. Click here to see FEMA’s entire response.
State of Illinois’ response
Davis continues to await a response from Governor Pritzker on the issue. On April 9, Davis sent a letter to Governor Pritzker asking for clarification on the issue, how they plan to help communities throughout the state who are no longer eligible for these grants, and what steps are being taken to ensure this issue does not happen again.
Background on PDM
The Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) Program through FEMA awards planning and project grants and provides opportunities for raising public awareness about reducing future losses before disaster strikes. Mitigation planning is a key process used to break the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage. According to FEMA, Illinois has received $11.6 million in these competitive grants since 2003.
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