I 111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 4141 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES November 19, 2009 Mr. Hill introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to allow certain individuals and households to be eligible for Federal assistance.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Disaster Assistance Reform Act of 2009.

2.

Disaster assistance for individuals and households in contiguous states

Section 408 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5176) is amended by adding at the end the following: (k)

Disaster assistance for individuals and households in contiguous states

Notwithstanding the provisions of this Act and only for purposes of this section, the President shall provide an individual or household in a State contiguous to a State for which a major disaster has been declared with assistance under this section if such individual or household— (1)has been adversely affected by the major disaster; and (2)resides in a county included in the request for a declaration made by the Governor of the State and such county is in a State contiguous to a State for which a major disaster has been declared, and certain counties in each of such States have comparable damage estimates. For a damage estimate to be comparable, the ratio determined by dividing the number of the houses impacted by the population in a county in a State that has not been declared a major disaster has to equal or exceed the ratio for the county, eligible for disaster assistance for such disaster in the State declared a major disaster, that has the lowest number of houses impacted divided by the population in such county .