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W e d n e s d ay, a p r i l 9, 2025
“It’s going to be a tough pill to swallow for communities like ours.” ARCHIE CHAISSON III, Lafourche Parish president
FEMA ends grants that help prepare for storms
$2.00X
Group challenges La. social media law Officials say measure designed to protect teens
148 applications in Louisiana worth $721 million spiked
BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
A truck winds through high water and downed power lines along La. 1 south of Golden Meadow following Hurricane Ida in 2021. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is cutting a grant program that funds work to lessen damage from storms including projects like flood control and electrical grid hardening. BY MARK BALLARD
Staff writer
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration has ended a Federal Emergency Management Agency program heavily relied upon by Louisiana that paid to elevate homes, build levees and do other work to lessen damage from storms, calling it “wasteful and ineffective.” The end of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program effectively spikes 148 applications worth
$721,281,559 in Louisiana, according to FEMA’s financial obligations database. Louisiana, California and New York collectively receive about half of the program’s total budget. FEMA has stopped accepting applications for 2024 and is canceling projects on the drawing board from 2020 to 2023. Approved grant funds that have not been distributed will be returned to the Disaster Relief Fund or the U.S. Treasury, according to FEMA. Plus, the agency is looking for ways to claw back money already paid out. For
Louisiana, that could translate to about $282 million. “The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program,” an unnamed FEMA spokesperson said in a statement that accompanied the announcement. “It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.” The program was created during Trump’s first administration. His
ä See FEMA, page 6A
A looming state law could mean Louisiana teenagers will soon be forced to prove their age and get their parents’ permission before they can log onto popular social media apps like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. But a legal battle is underway to block the restrictions, which were slated to take effect this summer. State lawmakers enacted the Secure Online Child Interaction and Age Limitation Act in 2023. The bill invokes an age-verification mandate upon social media companies with more than 5 million account holders worldwide. That means major online players like X, YouTube and Reddit have to make “commercially reasonable efforts” to confirm the ages of users across the state who are suspected of being 16 or younger. Those underage users will need parental consent to create a profile or log onto social media sites in Louisiana. The law was originally set to take effect in July 2024. But another bill that passed during last year’s legislative session amended the reforms and pushed the date for enforcement to begin. The changes are now set to take effect July 1. Now, the start could be further delayed as legal drama plays out in court. Netchoice, a social media trade association based in the nation’s capital, has challenged the law in federal court. In a petition filed March 18 in the U.S. Middle District Court of Louisiana, the online free-speech advocacy group is asking a federal judge to strike down the looming state law before it takes effect and eventually grant a permanent injunction. Netchoice argues that restricting minors’ access to protected online speech is unconstitutional and says the age-verification requirement is a First Amendment violation because it forces users to give up too much personal information just to gain access. Their lawsuit also contends Louisiana lawmakers failed to clearly define which social media
ä See SOCIAL, page 7A
Lafayette grandfather detained by ICE freed BY CLAIRE TAYLOR
Family members spread the news on social media Monday that Jose Francisco Garcia Rodriguez, a native of A 73-year-old Lafayette grandfather Cuba, has been freed. “By the power and grace of God, and who was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week nothing short of a miracle, my father is back home after spending a week in is home and in my arms!” Tyler Garan ICE detention center in Evangeline cia wrote on Facebook. “This is only Parish. the beginning, still have much to figure
Staff writer
WEATHER HIGH 77 LOW 47 PAGE 6B
out, but for now want to take a moment to step aside and be thankful. “No fathomable words can express my gratitude for the unending love, support, prayers, and solidarity from every one of you who made this possible,” he wrote.
ä See FREED, page 6A
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