Blunt: Feds should fully cover Joplin cleanup

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt says he is urging the federal government to pick up a greater-than-usual share of the cleanup costs from a deadly tornado that tore through the southwest Missouri city of Joplin.

The federal government typically covers 75 percent of the costs of responding to disasters, with state and local governments picking up the rest.

But the federal government paid 90 percent of the tab for damage to public property after 1993 floods along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. It also is paying 90 percent of the cleanup costs for deadly tornadoes that hit Alabama in April.

Blunt said Thursday that he has asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to allow the federal government to pay 100 percent of the costs of responding to the Joplin tornado.