Wasserman Schultz Secures $22 Million for Surfside Investigation

After the devastating tragedy that took place in Surfside, Florida with the collapse of the Champlain Towers South, lawmakers and members of the community mourned the fallen while inquiring about an investigation. In turn, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) has just announced that the federal government will be providing $22 million that will go to a formal investigation into the Surfside collapse.

Taking to Twitter to share the news, the Florida Democrat informed that she had secured “$22 million in funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to conduct a technical investigation into the cause of the collapse that claimed nearly 100 lives.” Commenting on Twitter, Wasserman-Schultz explained that the $22 million will be used “to unearth what went wrong, and to save thousands more lives by avoiding the same mistakes.”

The money is included in the “resolution package that funds federal agencies through early December and buys time to avoid a government shutdown.”

In a statement, the Florida lawmaker commented that “as we still mourn all those we lost, it’s crucial to assess just how widespread these building vulnerability issues may be,” adding that “in South Florida and across the United States, thousands of condos just like Champlain Towers may face similar structural problems.”

Wasserman Schultz further explained that “this NIST investigation can help unlock the scope of those issues and saves thousands more lives by averting similar tragedies.”

Wasserman Schultz represents the district that includes Surfside, and she noted that “this will be only the fifth NIST investigation conducted under its NCST Act statutory authority.”

The other investigations include the September 11^th attack, the attack on the World Trade Center, the 2011 Joplin Tornado in Joplin, Missouri, the 2003 Station Nightclub Fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017.