On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, again called on fellow lawmakers to approve Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funding to ensure survivors of the Maui wildfires and other national disasters have the means to fully recover.
Schatz’s remarks came as Congress is scheduled to go on recess at the end of next week.
“We’re running out of time. We have just over a week left before Congress goes home for the holidays. And we cannot leave without passing long-term disaster relief,” Schatz said. “People have waited, and waited, and waited for help to arrive. And every day we don’t get this done, is another day survivors can’t get back to life as they knew it.”
He said people in Lahaina are struggling to make ends meet almost a year-and-a-half after the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires.
“Getting that help is the difference between people being able to stay on Maui or leaving, reluctantly, but out of necessity, from the only place they’ve ever called home,” Schatz said.
He noted Lahaina is not alone in its struggle and that communities in 40 states are building back after natural disasters.
“More than 25 states are relying on long-term federal assistance to get survivors back on their feet,” said Schatz.
In the past, he said, federal aid helped states, like Louisiana after Hurricane Katria, New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy, and California after the 2018 wildfires.
“The Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program — known as CDBG-DR — works,” Schatz continued. “It’s supported millions of Americans struck by disaster over the past 30 years by giving them flexible and long-term assistance. And so, to not do this now — for people in Lāhainā and all across the country — would be the unusual thing.”
In September, Schatz also called on fellow lawmakers to pass CDBG-DR funding.
“I want to be perfectly clear that we cannot and will not leave town next week without passing disaster aid,” he concluded.
