Senator Cassidy Speaks at B.I.G Meeting, “We are looking at ways to make this place more prosperous, more safe, and more secure”

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Senator Bill Cassidy spoke at the Bayou Industrial Group (B.I.G.) monthly luncheon today, August 22 at the Thibodaux Regional Health System Wellness Center.

Dr. Bill Cassidy addressed the crowd filled with business leaders including the energy industry about strides being made to make Louisiana safe, secure, and prosperous. Cassidy told The Times of Houma/Thibodaux that the bayou community has a place in his heart. He said it was a no-brainer when it came to advocating for our area’s recovery efforts, “It’s an easy yet hard thing to do,” he said,” We’re trying to convince others of the need and I think we’ll be successful, and it’s an easy thing to put everything into.”

He visited the area immediately following Hurricane Ida and he said he noticed folks across the coast dedicated to living in the bayou communities, “When you see those folks living in our state in a culture that is over 100 years old, you have to preserve it. That is my commitment,” he said.


The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, was signed in November 2021 to rebuild America’s roads, bridges and rails, expand access to clean drinking water, ensure every American has access to high-speed internet, tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, and invest in communities that have too often been left behind. When it comes to a post-Hurricane Ida world, Cassidy said the Infrastructure Act along with billions of dollars being invested into coastal restoration projects, lowering the risk of flooding, hardening the grid, helping renewable energy, and provide more affordable housing are important. He said he noticed when he visited after Ida, that the homes that were built up to hurricane-fortified code barely received damage, “We need FEMA to be able to build those types of homes for low-income families so that when they return, they don’t have to worry about that home being destroyed for the next hurricane. In a variety of ways, we are looking at ways to make this place more prosperous, more safe, and more secure,” he told The Times.

When asked about the lengthy process of receiving federal funding after natural disasters through FEMA, Dr. Cassidy shared he is working on ways to better improve feedback avenues to be able to gather the information that will help make changes to the process that our area has learned the hard way that it can take what seems like forever, “A piece of legislation I’m working on is patterned after the military,” he shared. He explained that after an event or battle, the military participates in a “hotwash” which is when agencies share what went wrong, what went well, and what could have been done better, “A Senator from Hawaii and I are working on a piece of legislation in which FEMA would do a hotwash. After a storm, sit down and do a complete inventory of what went well and what went wrong. The Apostle Paul said you want to go from glory to greater glory. So let me put this in the positive; FEMA has done some really good work, but they can do it better. So can you make that better better, and that better better, and you’re never going to get to the best because you’re always going to be improving, but we want to see lessons learned to contribute to going better next time.”

He shared that when it comes to making our area more resilient to storms in the future, our state needs coastal restoration so that when a hurricane hits, it hits with less force, “We also need to complete our levees and flood protection for risk reduction, so that they can live secure that they won’t flood. We want to harden the grid… and we need to have [fortified] affordable housing. We’re working so that when someone moves here they do not fear living here.”


Cassidy has publicly called for an Energy Operation Warp Speed to reestablish America’s energy dominance. When asked about energy dominance, he said they asked a couple of questions, “How do we increase domestic energy production? Lower the cost of inflation and create a lot of American jobs? The Biden administration has put in so many obstacles when it comes to getting something done,” he said. He explained that it’s been a whirlwind of agencies saying they need another agency, something gets kicked back, and then six months later, they cannot decide. “What we did during the vaccine development during COVID was to get all of the agencies together in one room, so to speak,” he explained,” if you need a decision from another agency, you work it up now. Do things in parallel, not just one, and then the next, and then the next. We want that for domestic energy production. It can be for windmills, it can be done for solar panels, but it can also be for oil and gas. Let’s get American jobs created for fellow Americans in which we are building our energy sources not just for us but for the rest of the world.”

“I’m really committed to this region,” he said, “How do we make this place safer, more secure, and more prosperous? What I’m doing in Washington, whether it’s on the home life, the housing, or the built infrastructure, that’s what we’re trying to do.”