Government
Endangered HUD Funds Will Drive the Hurricane Recovery
Trump’s proposed 2018 budget would eliminate a program now set to provide about half the housing rebuilding funds for Harvey and Irma.
The Senate voted to raise the debt limit and introduce $15 billion in hurricane relief funds last week, well before Hurricane Irma arrived on the doorstep of U.S. territories in the Caribbean Sea. Now that the storm is lashing Florida, the decision looks more than prudent.
About half of the approved disaster recovery money take the form of Community Development Block Grant funds. Under the Trump administration’s proposed budget for 2018, though, this entire category of funding—the program itself—would be eliminated.