[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3157 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3157

To provide for the designation of a Department of Agriculture disaster 
   liaison to assist State and local employees of the Department in 
 coordination with other disaster agencies in response to a federally 
           declared disaster area as a result of a disaster.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 24, 2003

Mr. Blunt (for himself and Mr. Cardoza) introduced the following bill; 
           which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide for the designation of a Department of Agriculture disaster 
   liaison to assist State and local employees of the Department in 
 coordination with other disaster agencies in response to a federally 
           declared disaster area as a result of a disaster.

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

SECTION 1. LIAISON FOR DISASTER EMERGENCIES.

    (a) Designation of Disaster Liaison.--The Secretary of Agriculture 
shall designate employees of the Department of Agriculture to serve as 
disaster liaisons to State and local Department Service Centers in a 
federally declared disaster area to coordinate Department programs with 
the appropriate disaster agencies designated under the Robert T. 
Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 
et seq.).
    (b) Qualifications.--Disaster liaisons shall be selected from among 
Department employees who have experience providing emergency disaster 
relief in federally declared disaster areas.
    (c) Duties.--A disaster liaison shall--
            (1) serve as a liaison to State and Federal Emergency 
        Services;
            (2) be deployed to a federally declared disaster area to 
        coordinate Department interagency programs in assistance to 
        agricultural producers in the declared disaster area;
            (3) facilitate the claims and applications of agricultural 
        producers who are victims of the disaster that are forwarded to 
        the Department by the appropriate State Department of 
        Agriculture agency director; and
            (4) coordinate with the Director of the State office of the 
        appropriate Department agency to assist with the application 
        for and distribution of economic assistance.
    (d) Definition.--In this section, the term ``federally declared 
disaster area'' means--
            (1) an area covered by a Presidential declaration of major 
        disaster issued under section 301 of the Robert T. Stafford 
        Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170); 
        or
            (2) determined to be a disaster area by the Secretary under 
        subpart A of part 1945 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations.
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