[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3955 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3955

     To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 
Assistance Act to authorize the Administrator of the Federal Emergency 
   Management Agency to release a local government from certain land 
restrictions imposed under the hazard mitigation program, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 5, 2015

   Mr. Blum 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 authorize the Administrator of the Federal Emergency 
   Management Agency to release a local government from certain land 
restrictions imposed under the hazard mitigation program, 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 ``Small Municipality Flood Relief Act 
of 2015''.

SEC. 2. HAZARD MITIGATION PROGRAM.

    Section 404(b) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 
Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170c(b)) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4); and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following:
            ``(3) Authority to remove grant conditions.--A recipient of 
        assistance for an acquisition or relocation project shall be 
        released from any restriction imposed with respect to a parcel 
        of property under an agreement entered into under paragraph 
        (2)(B) if--
                    ``(A) the local government that has jurisdiction 
                over the property submits to the State a request for 
                the release;
                    ``(B) the request is made more than 5 years after 
                the date of the closeout of the acquisition or 
                relocation project;
                    ``(C) on the date of the request, the parcel is not 
                in an area designated by the Administrator, for 
                purposes of the National Flood Insurance Program, as an 
                area having special flood hazards;
                    ``(D) the local government certifies that no 
                coercion took place against the original property owner 
                in acquiring the parcel;
                    ``(E) the State in which the parcel is located 
                approves the request and submits to the Administrator, 
                not later than 60 days after the date of receipt of the 
                request, a recommendation for approval of the request;
                    ``(F) the local government--
                            ``(i) repays to the Administrator the 
                        amount of hazard mitigation assistance received 
                        from the Federal Government under paragraph (1) 
                        for the acquisition or relocation project; or
                            ``(ii) substitutes for the property a 
                        different parcel of property that--
                                    ``(I) has at least 2 times the 
                                acreage of the original property;
                                    ``(II) is subject to the same 
                                restrictions imposed under paragraph 
                                (2)(B);
                                    ``(III) will not be subject to the 
                                authority to remove the grant 
                                conditions provided under paragraph 
                                (3); and
                                    ``(IV) is determined to be as cost-
                                effective; and
                    ``(G) the Administrator gives final approval to the 
                request.''.
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