The Senate on Friday approved a bill that forces the Federal Emergency Management Agency to come up with a plan to get rid of its mobile home and trailer stockpile in Hope.

But what is perhaps the world’s largest trailer park may not go away so quickly. The passage came in the waning days of this congressional session, and House aides said it “would be difficult” to put the measure on the crowded House calendar before adjournment.

Without House passage, the bill dies.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., requires FEMA to say within nine months to either use, sell or dispose of its housing units located across the country.

Nearly 20,000 units are in Hope, where many have collected dust since 2005. FEMA purchased the units for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but red tape and concerns about chemicals in the trailers have rendered thousands unusable.

Pryor has called the trailer collection at the Hope Municipal Airport an example of government waste that’s “beyond silly.”

Hope officials, however, don’t complain too much. FEMA estimates it spends $1 million a month to maintain the trailer site.  The city receives $25,000 a month in rent.

Tags: FEMA, Hope, Mark Pryor

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