[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 109 (Monday, June 26, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H5144-H5146]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DISASTER ASSISTANCE SUPPORT FOR COMMUNITIES AND HOMEOWNERS ACT OF 2017
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules
and pass the bill (H.R. 1684) to direct the Administrator of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide technical assistance to
common interest communities regarding eligibility for disaster
assistance, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1684
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 ``Disaster Assistance Support
for Communities and Homeowners Act of 2017''.
SEC. 2. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
(a) Technical Assistance.--The Administrator of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency shall provide technical
assistance to a common interest community that provides
essential services of a governmental nature on actions that a
common interest community may take in order to be eligible to
receive reimbursement from a grantee that receives funds from
the Agency for certain activities performed after an event
that results in a disaster declaration.
(b) Recommendations.--Not later than 90 days after the date
of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall provide to
the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a legislative
proposal on how to provide eligibility for disaster
assistance with respect to common areas of condominiums and
housing cooperatives.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Missouri (Mr. Graves) and the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia
(Ms. Norton) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Missouri.
GENERAL LEAVE
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and
extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1684, as
amended.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Missouri?
There was no objection.
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Madam Speaker, the Disaster Assistance Support for Communities and
Homeowners Act of 2017 would allow FEMA to provide technical assistance
to some community associations regarding their application for disaster
assistance. The bill also seeks recommendations from FEMA on how condos
and co-ops may be eligible for disaster funds to repair common areas
which are affected by these disasters.
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Nadler) for working with the committee on this issue. The House passed
similar language last year as part of the FEMA Disaster Assistance
Reform Act.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
[[Page H5145]]
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1684, the Disaster
Assistance Support for Communities and Homeowners Act of 2017,
introduced by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), my good friend
and colleague. This bill will assist common interest communities such
as condos, co-ops, and community associations after disaster strikes.
Hurricane Sandy caused severe impacts to New York City and the
surrounding areas, inflicting billions of dollars of damage.
While condominiums and cooperative associations are not common in
large parts of the country, they are common in dense areas such as New
York City and Washington, D.C.
FEMA's Individual Assistance Program does not consider these types of
housing units which share common areas such as entryways, stairwells,
and elevators. As a result, FEMA determined that disaster damage to
common areas is the responsibility of the condominium or cooperative
association board and, therefore, not eligible for disaster assistance.
That cannot be what Congress intended.
The bill also addresses another type of housing common in certain
parts of the Nation: community associations. Community associations
provide essential services of a governmental nature such as trash
collection and maintaining roads and waterways. After disaster strikes,
however, FEMA may deny reimbursement to community associations for
performing the same types of essential services that FEMA reimburses
local governments for performing.
{time} 1715
In many cases, these common interest communities may have been
eligible for FEMA assistance if they had entered into agreements with
their local governments before the disaster occurred. Unfortunately,
many common interest communities are not aware of these opportunities.
This bill directs FEMA to provide technical assistance so that these
common interest communities know what actions they can take before
disaster strikes so that they may be eligible to receive reimbursement
from FEMA after the fact.
I strongly support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support
this measure.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers,
and I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), the author of the bill.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, thousands of New Yorkers and
other Americans learned that they were ineligible for FEMA assistance
because of the type of home in which they lived. Families who lived in
condos were eligible for assistance for their individual units, but
could not get any assistance to repair ground floor entryways, boilers,
or other common areas. Those who lived in cooperative housing, or co-
ops, were ineligible for any disaster assistance to repair the walls or
floors of their units, let alone their common areas.
This was not a small problem for my constituents. In the storm surge
area in New York, nearly 20 percent of housing units are in co-op
buildings and an additional 8 percent are in condominiums.
Seniors in high-rise condo buildings were able to get assistance to
repair their floors and repaint their floors, but nothing to fix the
elevators they needed to reach their units. Families in co-ops could
replace their furnishings and make some repairs, but the halls of the
buildings remained covered with mold and uninhabitable. Almost every
district in the country has condos, and homeowners in these condo
communities will continue to face the same terrible realization that
FEMA can give them no help in the wake of new disasters.
Community associations, or common interest communities, around the
country have experienced similar roadblocks when they seek FEMA
disaster assistance. Many of these associations own and operate their
own roads, canals, bridges, and water systems. In the aftermath of a
disaster, however, they are not eligible for FEMA assistance for basic
essential government services, such as removing trees and debris from
communal roads. Residents cannot get out of their neighborhoods and
emergency vehicles cannot get in.
This bill would address these eligibility problems in two ways:
First, it would direct FEMA to provide common interest communities
with technical assistance to identify options for public assistance
eligibility. Many of these communities are unaware that they could
already be eligible for assistance if, prior to a disaster, they
entered into agreements with their local governments on issues like
debris removal.
Second, my colleagues and I have communicated several times with FEMA
about the issue of condo and co-op eligibility for disaster assistance.
FEMA has studied this issue for several years, and this bill directs
FEMA to take the next step in this process by providing the House and
Senate committees legislative proposals to address these issues and to
make condos and co-ops eligible for disaster assistance.
Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member DeFazio
for bringing this bipartisan legislation to the floor today, and I
thank Mr. Sanford and Mr. Engel for cosponsoring it.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the
balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, my good friend is from New York, so it may be clear
why he, with a city full of condominiums and co-ops, would want this
bill. But I just want to alert Congress that increasingly what Mr.
Nadler sees in New York is what we are seeing all over the country.
After Hurricane Sandy, with climate change already here, we have to
do all we can before the fact, having seen what that disaster did to
New York City, New Jersey, and the surrounding community.
When people have gone through a disaster, they have suffered enough.
So to find that your resident is covered, but your way to get in the
residence or in the elevator is certainly not what Congress intended.
My own jurisdiction, the District of Columbia, was built with single
family homes, but that is not what we are building in the District of
Columbia and cities and counties throughout the United States now. In
our own city, there is a limited area. There is no way to go but up.
Mr. Nadler speaks not only for New York City, but his bill speaks for
what is happening in the United States of America. I think we may have
caught this problem just in time. We do not know when the next disaster
will occur. We don't want to be caught flat-footed on it.
I very much appreciate that my good friends have worked with us to
bring this bill forward.
Madam Speaker, I have no more speakers, and I yield back the balance
of my time.
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to
please support H.R. 1684, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, after Hurricane Sandy, thousands of
homeowners throughout the New York region learned that they were
ineligible for federal disaster assistance because they lived in a co-
op or a condo; not in a single family home.
According to the FEMA's policy, co-ops and condo associations are
``business entities''--not eligible for federal assistance that can
reach up to $30,000 per household.
As a result, community associations are often faced with the daunting
task of cleaning up and rebuilding after a major natural disaster--
without the help or resources that other homeowners receive from the
federal government.
To help bring fairness to the federal disaster relief process, my
colleague Jerry Nadler and I introduced H.R. 1684, the Disaster
Assistance Support for Communities and Homeowners Act.
Our bill directs FEMA to provide technical assistance to help
community associations qualify for disaster assistance grants.
It also directs FEMA to provide recommendations to Congress, within
12 months, on additional ways that co-ops and condos can become
eligible for assistance.
I encourage swift passage of H.R. 1684 to help ensure that all
community association
[[Page H5146]]
homeowners have access to federal disaster benefits.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1684,
the Disaster Assistance Support for Communities and Homeowners Act of
2017.
This bill directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to
provide technical assistance to Common Interest Communities to ensure
they are eligible to apply for public assistance.
H.R. 1684 also instructs FEMA to provide legislative proposals to
Congress in order to make condominiums and housing cooperatives
eligible for disaster assistance in the future.
Madam Speaker, H.R. 1684 addresses an outstanding issue many
Americans face in the aftermath of natural disasters because they are
ineligible for FEMA assistance based on the type of home they live in.
The glaring discrepancy and inequity in FEMA's policy were revealed
as communities struggled to recover and rebuild from the ravaging
effects of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
In addition to causing the deaths of 72 U.S. citizens, Hurricane
Sandy was the second-costliest hurricane in United States history,
destroying 651,000 housing units in New York and New Jersey and
exacting a staggering $19 billion in damages for New York City alone.
However, due to FEMA's unfair policy towards community associations,
thousands of New Yorkers found themselves ineligible for federal
recovery assistance needed to repair their homes because under current
federal law, condominiums, housing cooperatives, and homeowners
associations are classified as businesses.
H.R. 1684 corrects this unfairness by authorizing FEMA to provide
direct disaster relief to these communities in the form of technical
assistance and monetary reimbursements.
Further, the legislation directs FEMA to submit to Congress within 90
days of enactment a plan to make common areas of condos and co-ops
eligible for disaster assistance.
Madam Speaker, this legislation is particularly beneficial to my
congressional district since Houston ranks among the most disaster-
prone cities in the country.
Many of my constituents can recall with horror the devastating
effects of Hurricane Ike in 2008, which killed 37 people and destroyed
100,000 homes in Texas.
Over the course of this massive natural disaster, FEMA played a vital
role in responding to the needs of impacted areas and victims.
Unfortunately, FEMA's response to Hurricane Ike was also beset by a
lack of clear communication between appointed officials and regional
emergency managers on the ground.
Improving federal policy for disaster relief is a bipartisan issue
and H.R. 1684 is endorsed by the Community Associations Institute, a
leading membership organization with more than 34,000 members and 70
chapters nationwide.
Madam Speaker, legislation like H.R. 1684 is crucial to ensuring that
all Americans receive the relief and assistance they deserve in the
wake of natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy that destroy lives and
leave local economies in tatters.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 1684.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Graves) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 1684, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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