[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 53 (Friday, May 5, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S4108]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS:
  S. 2756. A bill to authorize the President to utilize Federal 
equipment, supplies, facilities, personnel, and other non-monetary 
resources to assist utility companies that contribute to recovery 
efforts from the effects of a major disaster; to the Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation 
that would make a change to the Stafford Act that, in some cases, could 
facilitate recovery from natural disasters.
  Governments on the local, State and Federal level have a primary and 
critical responsibility when it comes to responding to natural 
disasters. A wide variety of private organizations also play an 
important role in the recovery process that complements and facilitates 
public response efforts. In the case of private utility companies, 
their work to restore normal telecommunications, power, and other 
services in a disaster area can greatly speed the recovery process.
  Our investigation into the response to Hurricane Katrina has shown 
that a number of utility companies were hampered in their recovery 
efforts by shortages of fuel, transportation, equipment, and other 
resources in the afflicted areas. In some cases, we also found that 
FEMA had supplies of scarce resources, received requests to share those 
resources but lacked the legal authority to do so.
  What this bill would do is provide FEMA authority to share its 
resources during a disaster--at FEMA's discretion and for full 
compensation. This would allow FEMA--in those cases where it has 
sufficient resources to share--to advance the recovery process in the 
wake of a disaster at no expense to the Government.
  Mr. President, I am introducing this commonsense legislation because 
it will incrementally improve our capacity to respond to disasters 
without additional costs to the Government. I ask for my colleagues' 
support.

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