In response to the President’s sudden interest for something to be done with the manufactured homes, Senator Mark Pryor and I have asked the President to issue an Executive Order to waive the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) flood plain restriction which prevents manufactured homes from being delivered to flood plain areas.  Earlier this month, I introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to temporarily waive the flood plain restriction. It is my sincere hope that President Bush will issue an Executive Order and negate the need for this legislation in order to deliver the homes to the people who need them in a timely manner.   An Executive Order waiving the FEMA restriction could have the homes moving to the Gulf Coast in a matter of days and resolve the situation without legislative action. 

The harsh reality is that our Gulf Coast just experienced a natural disaster where most of the homes destroyed were built on a flood plain.  While placement of manufactured homes in Louisiana and Mississippi may not be ideal, neither is having families living in tents, nearly seven months after the storm, throughout the long winter season.  The delivery of the homes to the people who lost their homes and everything they own is long overdue.

The 10,477 homes stalled at Hope’s Municipal Airport is yet another symbol of the lack of leadership and accountability within this Administration.  FEMA has indicated that some 5,000 of the manufactured homes will be used for Katrina victims, while the remaining homes will be used for future disasters.  FEMA needs to use a good dose of common sense and deliver these homes to the people who continue to live in tents, hotel rooms, and other temporary housing arrangements nearly seven months after the hurricane uprooted lives of thousands of American citizens.  Rest assured, I will continue to ask the tough questions of FEMA until these homes are delivered to the people who so desperately need them.

Pryor and Ross contend that waiving the FEMA regulation which prevents these manufactured homes from being sent to flood plain areas would mirror legislation they introduced earlier this month in the Senate and House of Representatives.  They added, however, that an Executive Order waiving the FEMA restriction could have the homes moving to the Gulf Coast in a matter of days, as opposed to the lengthy process of passing legislation.