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September 11: Overview of Federal Disaster Assistance to the New York City Area

GAO-04-72 Published: Oct 31, 2003. Publicly Released: Oct 31, 2003.
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Highlights

The federal government has been a key participant in the efforts to provide aid to the New York City area to help it respond to and recover from the September 11 terrorist attacks. The President pledged, and the Congress subsequently authorized, about $20 billion in federal aid. This federal aid was provided primarily through four sources: the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Liberty Zone tax benefits--a set of tax benefits targeted to lower Manhattan. These sources provided 96 percent, or $19.63 billion, of the committed federal aid to the New York City area. It has been over 2 years since the attacks occurred, and many efforts have been undertaken to aid the New York City area to cope with the disaster and its many impacts. GAO was asked to describe how much and what type of federal assistance was provided to the New York City area through these four sources and how the federal government's response to this disaster differed from previous disasters. We provided a draft of this report to FEMA, DOT, HUD, and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for their review and comment, and all four agencies generally agreed with the information presented.

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CommutersCompensationDisaster relief aidEconomic developmentEmergency managementFederal aid programsFederal aid to citiesFinancial analysisFunds managementHomeland securityLossesRailroad tunnelsTerrorism