Delegation Pushes for Funding for Flood Damaged Roads

Press Release

Senators Kent Conrad and John Hoeven and Congressman Rick Berg today urged the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to support a request from the State of North Dakota for additional support to repair flood damaged roads across the state.

"North Dakota experienced flooding in nearly every corner of the state severely impacting many of our federal-aid roads," the delegation says. "We need the Department of Transportation to provide both flexibility and additional federal assistance to allow for a full recovery from these extraordinary disasters, specifically those in the Missouri River Basin,the Souris River and Devils Lake."

In a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the Congressional delegation describes the historic spring floods across the state, especially the devastation in the Missouri River Basin and Devils Lake. The delegation urges the Secretary to approve additional federal funding beyond the current Emergency Relief funding cap of $100 million.

Under federal law the state is capped at $100 million per disaster event. North Dakota has five areas that would qualify for $100 million each. However, Congress waived the funding cap for Missouri River Basin flooding in 2011. The delegation is arguing that because Missouri River flooding pushed the statewide event total over the $100 million cap, the cap should be waived for this event, allowing North Dakota to receive additional federal funding to repair roads and bridges in other areas that need repair.

The Congressional delegation also urged Secretary LaHood to allow North Dakota's Department of Transportation to withdraw its request to raise sections of U.S. Highway 2 in the Devils Lake Basin, bringing the emergency needs in the Devils Lake basin below the $100 million cap. Then, if needed, the state could re-submit the Highway 2 request in the future and receive additional federal funding at that time.

The Congressional delegation has been working with the U.S. Department of Transportation to cover as much of the cost of necessary flood repair work as possible under regular federal highway funding, emergency relief funding and state match, for both 2011 and this year.

To date, North Dakota has received more than $317 million in federal Emergency Relief funding, a record for the state, and nearly 25 percent of all federal emergency relief funding to be distributed nationwide.

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