HOEVEN: FEMA GRANTS EXTENSION FOR DRAYTON LEVEE

WASHINGTON - Senator John Hoeven today announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has agreed to a month-long extension for Drayton to keep in place its earthen levee built on land acquired through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). Hoeven is working to pass legislation to keep the levee as part of permanent flood control protections.

week, Hoeven spoke with Roy Wright, Deputy Associate Administrator for Insurance and Mitigation at FEMA, to press for the extension enabling the city to keep the levee while legislation, making the levee part of permanent flood control protections, makes its way through Congress.

"Drayton's levee provides important flood protection and should be kept in place," said Hoeven. "We've been working with FEMA officials for over a year to resolve this issue. We appreciate FEMA providing an extension and in the meantime, we will continue working to ensure that the city is able to keep the levee permanently."

Last year, Hoeven secured an extension for Drayton to keep the levee in place for six months. As chairman of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Committee in the last Congress, Hoeven authored legislation to authorize FEMA to allow Drayton and other cities to retain levees on HMGP land permanently as long as the "construction constitutes part of a flood control project, is constructed of naturally-occurring materials, and conforms to other criteria as established by FEMA policy." The senator continues working to pass that legislation to ensure that the levee can be left in place permanently.

The properties in question were acquired through HMGP as part of the 1997 flood disaster that affected the Grand Forks region.

Read this original document at: https://www.hoeven.senate.gov/news/news-releases/hoeven-fema-grants-extension-for-drayton-levee