Congressional Issues
More on Congressional Issues
RALEIGH, N.C. — Eight members of North Carolina's congressional delegation on Friday sent a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper to find out why the state has been so slow in doling out federal recovery funds following Hurricane Matthew.
North Carolina received about $400 million in federal community development grants after the October 2016 hurricane flooded many eastern counties, but as of the beginning of this month, only about $40,000 had been passed on to storm survivors. The rest was still tied up in red tape.
SALISBURY — State and federal leaders are rightly taking steps to rescue victims of human trafficking, but unless lawmakers increase support for survivors’ care and rehabilitation, those efforts will be thwarted, a group of North Carolina experts say.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide more than $1 million in grants to help reconstruct the Devonwood Lower Dam that was damaged during Hurricane Matthew in 2016, a news release from U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson said Friday.
The city has previously estimated that the dam will cost $2.9 million to repair.
With just days until a deadline to avoid a shutdown, Congress passed a short-term measure to keep government funded until early December.
First, the Senate passed the spending measure by a 72-26 count. Next, the U.S. House passed it by a 342-85 count. It keeps government funded until Dec. 9 and includes money to fight the Zika virus, help victims of recent flooding in Louisiana and various appropriations for military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is trying again to persuade Congress to give its people millions of dollars in federal benefits that other American Indian tribes receive.
Similar efforts have failed for decades, in part because of opposition from other tribes that fear their benefits would be reduced in order to provide for the Lumbees. But U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina introduced a new Lumbee recognition bill and, with Lumbee Tribal Chairman Harvey Godwin, presented it Wednesday to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.