WBRZ - Baton Rouge

LIVINGSTON - U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy says the Federal Emergency Management Agency should reopen an appeal by Livingston Parish that asks the agency to pay for debris removal from Hurricane Gustav.

In a letter to FEMA, Cassidy say evidence suggests the agency may have wrongly decided how much it would reimburse the parish and then found documentation to support that predetermined result.

In November, Livingston Parish asked FEMA to reopen the $13 million appeal saying that the federal agency used false information in its denial of the parish's appeal.

In January 2012, FEMA denied the parish's appeal on the dangerous trees saying review of photographs and records confirmed the agency's earlier finding that the work was ineligible for federal funding.