[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1790 Introduced in House (IH)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1790

  To provide for the equitable treatment of rural communities in the 
  distribution of Federal disaster assistance, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 11, 2003

  Mrs. Cubin introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide for the equitable treatment of rural communities in the 
  distribution of Federal disaster assistance, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Rural Disaster Assistance Fairness 
Act of 2003''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE OF RURAL ADVOCACY.

    Section 320 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 
Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5163) is amended to read as follows:

``SEC. 320. EQUITABLE TREATMENT OF GEOGRAPHIC AREAS.

    ``(a) Limitation on Use of Sliding Scales.--No geographic area 
shall be precluded from receiving assistance under this Act solely by 
virtue of an arithmetic formula or sliding scale based on income or 
population.
    ``(b) Office of Rural Advocacy.--
            ``(1) Establishment.--The President shall establish in the 
        Federal Emergency Management Agency an Office of Rural 
        Advocacy.
            ``(2) Director.--The Office shall be headed by a Director, 
        who shall report to the Director of the Federal Emergency 
        Management Agency.
            ``(3) Duties.--The Director of the Office shall be an 
        advocate for the fair treatment of rural communities in the 
        provision of assistance under this Act. In carrying out the 
        Director's responsibilities, the Director shall--
                    ``(A) participate in the disaster declaration 
                process under section 401, and the emergency 
                declaration process under section 501, to ensure that 
                the needs of rural communities are being addressed;
                    ``(B) assist small population States in the 
                preparation of requests for major disaster or emergency 
                declarations;
                    ``(C) review all rules and regulations relating to 
                the provision of assistance under this Act to ensure 
                that rural communities receive fair and equitable 
                treatment; and
                    ``(D) conduct such other activities as the Director 
                of the Federal Emergency Management Agency considers 
                appropriate.''.

SEC. 3. RULEMAKING.

    (a) In General.--The Director of the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency shall promulgate a rule to ensure that the factors used to 
review a Governor's request for a major disaster declaration under 
section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 
Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170), or an emergency declaration under 
section 501 of that Act (42 U.S.C. 5191), adequately address the needs 
of States with a population of less than 1,000,000 individuals and the 
rural communities in those States.
    (b) Considerations.--In promulgating a rule under this section, the 
Director shall ensure that the following factors are considered in 
determining whether an event constitutes a major disaster or emergency:
            (1) Loss of access to critical services in a community and 
        proximity to similar services.
            (2) Availability of medical and veterinary services.
            (3) Percentage of damage to residential and commercial 
        buildings.
    (c) Statutory Construction.--Nothing in this section may be 
construed to authorize major disaster or emergency assistance that is 
not authorized as of the date of enactment of this Act.
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