Following last year’s devastating floods and two consecutive summers of catastrophic wildfires, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet is cosponsoring Senator Mark Udall’s bill to create a permanent funding stream for disaster assistance. The bill will help protect Colorado’s watersheds and prevent further damage following natural disasters like wildfires and flooding.
“With warmer weather comes the spring snowmelt. Many areas in Colorado are on high alert for additional flooding after last year’s floods and wildfires wreaked havoc on our watersheds,” Bennet said. “This commonsense bill will help ensure that these communities have access to crucial resources to protect the land, keep our rivers clean, and prevent even more damage.”
The bill creates a permanent disaster-assistance fund that will leverage existing dollars to prevent mudslides and other disasters stemming from the spring melt. The bill is deficit neutral and uses funds already appropriated for disaster relief.
Bennet worked closely with Udall to help secure federal funding to help restore Colorado’s watersheds following September’s floods. Bennet also joined Udall to lead a delegation-wide effort that successfully lifted the cap on the amount of emergency transportation resources Colorado could access to rebuild damaged infrastructure. Bennet also helped secure more than $250 million from HUD’s CDBG-DR program to finance ongoing flood recovery work in Colorado.