FEMA State Payments Being Processed

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The Federal Emergency Management Agency is encouraging the state of Texas today to provide it the necessary documentation for all emergency response services for Hurricane Ike after state officials said bills from vendors were going unpaid.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, Allison Castle, said this week that about $120 million of the $134 million in unpaid bills stacking up for the emergency response to Ike were the responsibility of the federal government.

FEMA said in a news release today that contracts for emergency response services were between the state and the vendors. FEMA said it was the state’s responsibility to pay the bills and then be reimbursed.

The federal agency also said reimbursement requests are being processed daily and usually within seven days of the time FEMA receives the necessary documentation.

Castle tells The Associated Press tonight the state’s issue isn’t with the hard working men and women of FEMA, quote, “it’s with the FEMA bureaucracy. The state of Texas isn’t the only state to have issues with this.”