Today, Heritage experts Justin Bogie and David Inserra offered the following comment following the House passage of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018:

 

“Passage of this bill highlights Congress’ inability to tighten its purse strings, by authorizing $1.7 billion in disaster funding for an unrelated program that’s fraught with waste and special interest handouts: Community Development Block Grants.

 

“Funding the Community Development Block Grant through the emergency designation in a ‘must pass’ bill is clearly a gimmick intended to evade budget caps. The effectiveness of the CDBG program is questionable. Regardless, the program has no role in immediate disaster response efforts and it should not receive emergency funding under that guise.

 

“Moving forward, Congress must curtail its habit of relying on emergency spending for non-emergency causes. The Disaster Relief Fund and the National Flood Insurance Program must be reformed to better prepare the federal, state, and local governments as well as individuals for disasters.”