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Tillis Calls For Local Management Of Delayed Disaster Relief Funds

A truck drives through floodwaters from Hurricane Matthew in Lumberton, N.C. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

U.S. Senator Thom Tillis says he'll introduce a bill to streamline the pace of disaster relief fund spending in North Carolina. 

Tillis spoke at a news conference Wednesday, where he was joined by Republican state legislators. Tillis said the state has been hurt by delays in distributing federal community block fund grants earmarked for Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

The News and Observer reports the senator will propose legislation that would allow local governments to assume control of relief funds if state agencies fail to hit spending benchmarks after 18 months. Tillis pointed to a recent report from the General Assembly, in which county administrators said they were better equipped to distribute disaster relief funds than state Emergency Management officials.

Tillis and his fellow Republican lawmakers blamed Democratic Governor Roy Cooper's administration for the delays in administering hurricane recovery funding.  

Cooper officials say distribution is picking up, and attribute the spending delays to highly regulated federal guidelines.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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