09.11.12

Delegation: HUD Approval of ND Recovery Plans Puts $79.3 Million in CDBG Funds to Work in Minot, ND Communities

WASHINGTON – Senators John Hoeven, Kent Conrad and Congressman Rick Berg today said that approval by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for two North Dakota disaster recovery plans will enable Minot and other flood-impacted communities to move forward with rebuilding efforts using $79.3 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds secured by the delegation.

“We’ve been working with HUD every step of the way to ensure that they understand the needs in our state’s communities following last year’s flooding,” said the delegation in a joint statement. “We’ve worked to secure CDBG funding, and other disaster aid, to help communities to recover from these historic floods. We appreciate HUD approving our state’s plans and are pleased that these CDBG funds will now be put to work in Minot and other areas where they are critically needed to help homeowners and the community to rebuild.”

The congressional delegation worked throughout last year to secure disaster funding to aid the state’s communities. They secured more than $67.5 million in CDBG funding to help rebuild the city of Minot after record flooding in 2011, and an additional $11.7 million for the State of North Dakota. The disaster CDBG funding approved by Congress was first added to the Transportation and HUD Appropriations bill in an amendment introduced by Hoeven during consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee, on which he serves. Senators Hoeven and Conrad and Congressman Berg worked with their respective parties and leadership to win approval for this critical disaster funding in negotiations between the House and Senate. The congressional delegation also successfully pushed for the CDBG funds to be targeted specifically to the most impacted states, such as North Dakota.