Welch, Balint, and State and Community Leaders Heard from Flood-Impacted Vermonters in Barre, Vermont
VermontBiz U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) joined U.S. Representative Becca Balint (VT-AL), Vermont State Senators Anne Watson and Andrew Perchlik, alongside the Climate Action Campaign (CAC) and its Vermont partners, at the Old Labor Hall in Barre for an Extreme Weather People’s Hearing.
The event, through first person testimony, highlighted how climate change is fueling more dangerous and deadly extreme weather, and threatening the lives and livelihoods of Vermonters. Small business owners, public health experts, farmers, and community members testified about how their lives have been disrupted by climate change-fueled extreme weather, including the catastrophic flooding in July of 2023 and 2024.
“Vermonters know firsthand the pain caused by climate-driven extreme weather. This week, we’re remembering the floods of 2023 and 2024, which caused brutal damage to homes, farms, small businesses, and entire communities. Many folks are still recovering, and they need support from the federal government. I’m fighting in Washington to get disaster recovery funding back to Vermont and improve disaster assistance programs to better support rural states,” said Senator Welch. “Climate change and extreme weather events can hit any community. This is a red state issue just as much as it is a blue state issue; We need bipartisan solutions and action—and we need it now.”
Senator Welch has advocated for disaster aid funding throughout Vermont’s catastrophic back-to-back flooding in July 2023 and July 2024. On the anniversaries of Vermont’s catastrophic floods, Senator Welch introduced the Disaster Assistance Improvement and Decentralization (AID) Act, which would cut red tape and support hazard mitigation efforts, make the delivery of disaster aid more efficient and effective, provide technical assistance to small towns and communities impacted by natural disasters, and block the White House from withholding funding for disaster response. The bill was inspired and shaped by the disaster recovery experience of communities across Vermont.
The Senator also introduced the Rural Recovery Act, which would create a new program at USDA Rural Development (RD) to provide RD state offices with automatic funding for emergency recovery technical assistance after disasters take place in their jurisdiction.
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