{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://garretgraves.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/graves-abraham-tax-bill-negotiators-don-t-forget-about-louisiana-flood", "Graves & Abraham to Tax Bill Negotiators: Dont forget about Louisiana flood victims", "2017-12-12", "2017", "2017-12", "Republican", "House", "LA", "Garret Graves", "G000577", "garretgraves.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, DC\u00a0\u2013 Louisiana Congressmen Garret Graves (R-Capital Region) and Ralph Abraham, M.D. (R-Alto)\u00a0sent a letter\u00a0today urging Senator Orrin Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, and Congressman Kevin Brady, Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means to retain disaster tax relief language in the final product of negotiations currently underway in Washington to resolve differences between House and Senate versions of major tax reform legislation. \u00a0The disaster tax relief, which was included by Senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy in the Senate\u2019s version of the bill, accomplishes the goals of separate legislation Graves introduced earlier this year - H.R. 2849,\u00a0the Louisiana Flood and Storm Devastation Act of 2017, which would grant homeowners and individuals emergency tax relief, the ability to withdraw from retirement accounts without incurring penalties, casualty loss provisions, work opportunity tax credits for employers, and relief for certain charitable giving. The bipartisan bill was cosponsored by Congressmen Richmond (D-LA), Abraham and Higgins.\n\u201cWe aren\u2019t asking for special treatment,\u201d\u00a0reiterated Graves.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re asking for our flood victims to be given the same, common sense relief that disaster victims in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico were granted after disaster struck those communities. \u00a0Too often after disasters, government ends up getting in the way of recovery \u2013 this is a chance to actually help recovery and remove nonsensical penalties currently imposed on victims for wanting to take care of themselves.\u201d\nDr. Abraham added,\u00a0\u201cLouisiana flood victims deserve equal access to disaster tax benefits that have been afforded to other states. Our people are still recovering from two historic floods we suffered last year, and this tax relief will go a long way toward facilitating that recovery.\u201d\nLouisiana Congressmen Clay Higgins and Mike Johnson also signed the letter, which can be read\u00a0here. You can read more about H.R. 2849\u00a0here.\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://garretgraves.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/graves-abraham-tax-bill-negotiators-don-t-forget-about-louisiana-flood"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6582092028111219, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}