Jasper-Troupsburg's $60.5 Million: A Claim That Mostly Holds Up

Disaster Recovery / FEMA Source: Facebook Post MOSTLY TRUE

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Rep. Langworthy said he was “proud to have helped secure $60.5 million” in FEMA funds to rebuild Jasper-Troupsburg schools. The award is real, the advocacy is documented, and the district’s superintendent credits him by name. Two pieces of context complete the picture: the money flows through a statutory FEMA program once obligated — and Senator Schumer’s office, which the superintendent also credits, announced the same award the same week as its own win.

Why This Matters for NY-23

This site documents the gap between what Rep. Langworthy says and what the record shows. When a claim substantially holds up, that belongs on the record too. It also matters going forward: the federal program that produced this award is the one a presidential review council proposed restructuring a month before the announcement.

Statements

Source: Facebook Post, June 9, 2026

“Proud to have helped secure $60.5 million in @fema funds to rebuild Jasper-Troupsburg schools. After years of fighting for this community, a brighter future is within reach for NY23.”

Source: Facebook post recapping a WHAM 1180 radio interview, June 13, 2026

“We talked about the $60.5 million I helped secure with FEMA … for the Jasper-Troupsburg Central School District. Students can learn in a safe, modern school, and families won’t have to worry about the next flood.”

The Award — What the Record Shows

  • $60,493,661.51 awarded to the Jasper-Troupsburg Central School District through FEMA’s Public Assistance Program, under the major disaster declaration for Tropical Storm Fred.
  • The total project is estimated at $67.2 million; FEMA’s share is a 90% federal cost share.
  • The award funds a new junior/senior high school for a campus flooded by the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred in August 2021 and flooded again, mid-repair, by the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby in August 2024.
  • The project relocates the school out of the floodplain. Per Langworthy’s office, the award “includes more than $5 million in hazard mitigation funding, allowing the district to rebuild outside the floodplain.” The district is moving the campus to vacant land on Route 36/417 (which it has under purchase contract); local reporting describes the approved FEMA project as letting the district relocate and build at a nearby site with significantly lower flood risk, and Schumer said the district “met the federal criteria to move the school.”

In plain language: A small rural school district’s campus was destroyed twice in three years. The federal government is paying 90 cents of every dollar — roughly $60.5 million — not just to rebuild but to move the school off the floodplain, with more than $5 million specifically for flood mitigation.

What’s Accurate

  1. The advocacy is documented, and the district confirms it. Superintendent Jason Oliver, in the announcement: “I want to thank Congressman Langworthy for his steadfast support and advocacy throughout this process.” This is the affected institution crediting him directly, not self-attribution.
  2. “Helped secure” is careful phrasing. The post claims a contributing role, not sole authorship. By comparison, Senator Schumer’s office announced the identical award under the headline “SCHUMER SECURES $60 MILLION IN FEMA FUNDING,” with Schumer saying “I’m proud and excited to deliver a whopping $60 million.” Langworthy’s “helped” is the more modest of the two framings.
  3. “Years of fighting” is consistent with the record. The disaster declaration dates to 2021; intermediate FEMA obligations to the district (over $5.6 million in 2022, $6.5 million subsequently) came with documented advocacy from multiple offices across that period.
  4. His broader FEMA record supports the framing. Langworthy cosponsored the bipartisan FEMA Act of 2025 (H.R. 4669) on January 27, 2026 — legislation to restructure FEMA as an independent, cabinet-level agency.
  5. “Won’t have to worry about the next flood” largely holds — the campus moves to significantly lower flood risk. The project does not rebuild on the flooded site; it relocates the school out of the floodplain, with more than $5 million in hazard-mitigation funding. The protection is real and comes from siting (abandoning the flood-prone location), not from flood-proofing the old buildings. One precise note: the sources describe the new site as “significantly lower” flood risk, not zero — relocation reduces the risk substantially; it does not erase it.

Context

The money flows by statute. Public Assistance awards under a major disaster declaration are entitlement-style obligations: once FEMA approves the project worksheet, funding follows by law. Members of Congress can and do advocate — pressing FEMA on timelines, declarations, and cost shares — but no member appropriates or directs a specific PA award. “Helped secure” is consistent with advocacy; it should not be read as authorship of the funding.

Two offices, one award, two solo announcements. Langworthy’s announcement does not mention Schumer; Schumer’s does not mention Langworthy. The superintendent credited both — saying of Schumer’s office that “during times when progress felt uncertain or delayed within the system, their office continued to advocate for our community.” Readers seeing either announcement alone would reasonably conclude one office did this; the district’s own statements say both did.

The program behind this award is on the table. On May 7, 2026, the President’s FEMA Review Council issued its final report recommending that the Public Assistance Program — the mechanism that produced this 90%-cost-share award — be replaced with fixed, parametric block grants to states (“RAPID”). Whether Rep. Langworthy supports that restructuring is not addressed in his post or, as of this writing, in any public statement we have located. His FEMA Act cosponsorship points in a different direction (a strengthened, independent FEMA), making his position on the Council’s recommendations a fair and open question.

This school is being moved out of harm’s way; the broader prevention program was cancelled, then restored by court order. This award relocates Jasper-Troupsburg’s campus out of the floodplain — but the school is one building. The federal government’s principal pre-disaster mitigation grant program, Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC), had made more than $4.6 billion available since fiscal year 2020 for projects to reduce losses from floods and other disasters before they occur. On April 4, 2025, FEMA announced it was ending BRIC, calling it a “wasteful, politicized grant program”; the action withdrew the $750 million fiscal year 2024 funding round and moved undistributed BRIC funds toward the Disaster Relief Fund or the Treasury. That cancellation did not stand. On December 11, 2025, a federal court ruled that the administration had “unlawfully terminated BRIC” and issued a permanent injunction against the termination; following a March 6, 2026 order enforcing that ruling, FEMA reissued the program on March 25, 2026 as a single fiscal year 2024–2025 Notice of Funding Opportunity totaling $1 billion, with applications due July 23, 2026. (The court did not order FEMA to award any specific grant, and the ruling leaves FEMA free to replace BRIC with a different mitigation program in the future.) The Jasper-Troupsburg relocation protects this campus through post-disaster Public Assistance after two floods; the pre-disaster program that would help other flood-prone NY-23 homes, businesses, and facilities reduce risk before the next loss is — after roughly eleven months without an open funding round — accepting applications again.

We have located no public statement from Rep. Langworthy on BRIC specifically — its cancellation, the court rulings, or its March 2026 reinstatement. As FEMA’s future was being debated in April 2025, he spoke generally in favor of restructuring the agency: “There’ve been serious problems with FEMA, and there were a lot of things outside of its core mission that we saw emphasized with the illegal crisis, so I’m all for restructuring. We just have to make sure it’s still delivering the core functions” (The Assembly NC, April 9, 2025). His cosponsorship of the FEMA Act of 2025 (H.R. 4669, cosponsored January 27, 2026) points toward a strengthened, independent FEMA rather than the Review Council’s shrink-and-devolve model — but neither the quote nor the bill addresses BRIC or pre-disaster mitigation directly.

Questions This Raises

  1. The Review Council’s May 7 report would replace the Public Assistance Program with fixed block grants. Does Rep. Langworthy support that recommendation, given that Jasper-Troupsburg’s rebuild came through the existing program at a 90% cost share?
  2. Would a fixed block grant paid to New York State within 30 days of a declaration have produced $60.5 million for one small rural district’s campus, or would the rebuild compete with every other project in the state’s allocation?
  3. This school is being relocated out of the floodplain — genuine mitigation. BRIC, the principal pre-disaster mitigation program, was cancelled in April 2025 and reinstated by court order in March 2026 as a $1 billion FY2024–25 round (applications due July 23, 2026). Does Rep. Langworthy support sustaining and funding BRIC or an equivalent pre-disaster mitigation program, so that flood-prone NY-23 homes, businesses, and communities that don’t qualify for a post-disaster relocation can also reduce risk before the next loss?

Sources

The award:

Relocation and mitigation:

Advocacy history:

FEMA policy context — Review Council:

BRIC — cancellation, court rulings, and reinstatement:

Note: This entry documents publicly available information. The award, the advocacy, and the program mechanics are reported per FEMA, congressional offices, and the school district’s public statements.

Last updated: June 14, 2026