CEDAR RAPIDS – Mayor Ron Corbett will visit Washington, D.C., on Thursday to talk to officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development about problems getting some $85 million in federal funds to the flood-damaged Cedar Rapids businesses for which the money was intended.

Corbett this week said little of the money has been handed out.

He said he and a representative of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce will talk to HUD officials who played a role in adjusting interpretations of federal rules in favor of some Cedar Rapids residential property owners having their flood-damaged homes bought out using HUD Community Development Block Grant funds.

Corbett said he will ask HUD officials to review their rules as they apply to businesses so “we can get some of this money on the street.” He said, “It’s been more than two years now since the flood.”

“Hopefully, meeting face to face, we can finally break this logjam,” the mayor said.

He cited one example in which flood-damaged businesses obtained loans after the flood to help them stay afloat, but now those loan payments are considered a “duplication of benefits” and counted against what money is available from CDBG funds.

It’s money the businesses have to pay back, so why is it counted as a duplication of benefits? the mayor asked.