[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 104 (Tuesday, June 15, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H2769-H2771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FEDERAL DISASTER ASSISTANCE COORDINATION ACT
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 2016) to amend the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 to
develop a study regarding streamlining and consolidating information
collection and preliminary damage assessments, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 2016
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 ``Federal Disaster Assistance
Coordination Act''.
SEC. 2. STUDY TO STREAMLINE AND CONSOLIDATE INFORMATION
COLLECTION AND PRELIMINARY DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS.
(a) In General.--Section 1223 of the Disaster Recovery
Reform Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-254) is amended to read as
follows:
``SEC. 1223. STUDY TO STREAMLINE AND CONSOLIDATE INFORMATION
COLLECTION AND PRELIMINARY DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS.
``(a) Information Collection.--Not later than 2 years after
the date of enactment of this section, the Administrator, in
coordination with the Small Business Administration, the
Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Disaster
Assistance Working Group of the Council of the Inspectors
General on Integrity and Efficiency, and other appropriate
agencies, shall--
``(1) conduct a study and develop a plan, consistent with
law, under which the collection of information from disaster
assistance applicants and grantees will be modified,
streamlined, expedited, efficient, flexible, consolidated,
and simplified to be less burdensome, duplicative, and time
consuming for applicants and grantees; and
``(2) develop a plan for the regular collection and
reporting of information on Federal disaster assistance
awarded, including the establishment and maintenance of a
website for presenting the information to the public.
``(b) Preliminary Damage Assessments.--Not later than 2
years after the date of enactment of this section, the
Administrator, in consultation with the Council of the
Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, shall convene
a working group on a regular basis with the Secretary of
Labor, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget,
the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Administrator
of the Small Business Administration, the Secretary of
Transportation, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for
Economic Development, and other appropriate agencies as the
Administrator considers necessary, to--
``(1) identify and describe the potential areas of
duplication or fragmentation in preliminary damage
assessments after disaster declarations;
``(2) determine the applicability of having one Federal
agency make the assessments for all agencies; and
``(3) identify potential emerging technologies, such as
unmanned aircraft systems, consistent with the requirements
established in the FEMA Accountability, Modernization and
Transparency Act of 2017 (42 U.S.C. 5121 note), to expedite
the administration of preliminary damage assessments.
``(c) Comprehensive Report.--The Administrator shall submit
one comprehensive report that comprises the plans developed
under subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) and a report of the
findings of the working group convened under subsection (b),
which may include recommendations, to the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs of the Senate.
``(d) Public Availability.--The comprehensive report
developed under subsection (c) shall be made available to the
public and posted on the website of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency--
``(1) in pre-compressed, easily downloadable versions that
are made available in all appropriate formats; and
``(2) in machine-readable format, if applicable.
``(e) Sources of Information.--In preparing the
comprehensive report, any publication, database, or web-based
resource, and any information compiled by any government
agency, nongovernmental organization, or other entity that is
made available may be used.
``(f) Briefing.--Not later than 180 days after submission
of the comprehensive report, the Administrator of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, or a designee, and a member of
the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and
Efficiency, or a designee, shall brief, upon request, the
appropriate congressional committees on the findings and any
recommendations made in the comprehensive report.''.
(b) Technical Amendment.--The item relating to section 1223
in the table of contents of the FAA Reauthorization Act of
2018 (Public Law 115-254) is amended to read as follows:
``Sec. 1223. Study to streamline and consolidate information collection
and preliminary damage assessments.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) and the gentlewoman from Puerto
Rico (Miss Gonzalez-Colon) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia.
General Leave
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on H.R. 2016.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia?
There was no objection.
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in support of H.R. 2016, the Federal Disaster Assistance
Coordination Act, introduced by Representatives Gonzalez-Colon and
Peters. This legislation amends the Disaster Recovery Reform Act to
help Federal agencies streamline and consolidate information collection
and preliminary damage assessments following disasters.
When a major disaster occurs, Americans don't have time to wait for
bureaucracy. Today, however, too many barriers stand between emergency
response and Americans in crisis due to disaster.
Federal recovery assistance following major disasters is currently
hampered by inefficient information collection and assessments
conducted by multiple agencies.
This bill will remove information collection barriers that currently
impede disaster aid. It creates a working group to identify duplicative
assessments and propose their elimination.
Further, it would streamline Federal disaster recovery efforts by
concluding that a single agency is sufficient to conduct damage
assessments to account for the needs of disaster victims in 2021.
It is 2021, and we can and should be doing this smarter. I urge my
colleagues to support this bill.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
[[Page H2770]]
Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
First of all, I rise in support of this bill, H.R. 2016, the Federal
Disaster Assistance Coordination Act.
First, I want to thank Chairman DeFazio and Ranking Member Graves for
bringing this bill to the floor, as well as Chairwoman Norton. But I
would also like to thank Representative Scott Peters from California
for cosponsoring this legislation.
In the last Congress, I joined with former colleague, Mark Meadows,
in proposing this bill, and it was with great satisfaction that I see
it come to the floor.
This is a simple bill that will establish a process to identify ways
to streamline and consolidate the collection of certain disaster
information in order to start the recovery process for individuals,
families, and government devastated by natural disasters.
While FEMA is the lead Federal agency on disasters, there are
multiple Federal agencies involved in every disaster response and
recovery. This often leads to duplicative assessments and causes
serious delays for the recovery process to begin.
In the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and the seismic
activity in Puerto Rico, we discovered how Federal agency after Federal
agency, from FEMA, to HUD, to SBA, would require the same information
from applicants, location, nature of damage, ownership, value of
damage, estimated repair costs, among many others, in each of their
preliminary assessments.
There was no process to share this information between the Federal
agencies, which ultimately caused significant delays during both
immediate relief and long-term recovery. At one point, these
represented more than 70,000 assessments of individual worksites that
each needed to be completed by FEMA. Many of these assessments will be
small parts of a larger project; sites costing under $126,000, with
responsibilities divided among municipalities and State agencies. Many
of these were each, itself, a part of a larger process.
For example, repairs to individual pipes, storage tanks or pumps of
an aqueduct system; and having to evaluate each site individually will
slow down the whole project.
After many complaints from us and the local governments, FEMA,
finally, in 2020, decided to begin consolidating these assessments for
Puerto Rico to speed up the project delivery process across multiple
Federal agencies.
I think it is critically important that Federal response agencies
work together to minimize overlaps in their assessments and take
advantage of the newest technologies.
Specifically, this bill will establish a Federal working group led by
FEMA that will work with the Council of the Inspectors General on
Integrity and Efficiency, and in consultation with HUD, SBA, HHS, EDA,
the Department of Labor, and OMB to identify ways to reduce duplication
and modernize the Federal damage assessments process.
This is a good government bill that will help expedite all forms of
disaster recovery across the Nation. As we have learned in Puerto Rico,
it is not a matter of if there is a next disaster; it is about when it
is going to happen, at least in our case.
So we must be ready to respond in a way that takes care of the
immediate needs of those facing a disaster and of rebuilding with
resiliency. That response needs to be efficient and effective, and with
this legislation, we are going to help bring this about.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support this bipartisan
legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Van Duyne).
Ms. VAN DUYNE. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my
colleagues' bill, H.R. 2016, the Federal Disaster Assistance
Coordination Act.
When I was Regional Secretary for HUD during Hurricane Harvey,
Hurricane Maria, and Hurricane Irma, I saw firsthand the bureaucratic
web of red tape and inefficiencies that prevented getting help to those
who needed it the most in a timely manner.
I spoke with several of you in this body on both sides of the aisle,
who came to me fighting for your constituents, asking why it was taking
so long to get aid. I felt and understood your frustration, but had to
explain the long list of policies, procedures, and red tape that our
regulations demanded. And, boy, I never felt like more of a bureaucrat
than when I spoke with you.
It is a very difficult position for our folks to be in. These
inefficiencies have serious costs.
This is a bipartisan piece of commonsense legislation to establish
procedures to streamline and consolidate processes. When we allocate
dollars, they need to get to those who are suffering the most. And the
last thing we need is for them to be caught up in a bureaucracy of the
government's making.
The faster FEMA is able to help get to communities of need, the
faster they can recover. It is critically important that these agencies
all work together.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support this bipartisan
legislation.
{time} 1345
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve
the balance of my time.
Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may
consume to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves), my friend and the
ranking member of the Aviation Subcommittee.
Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, you have heard numerous
speakers talk about the bureaucracy that happens in the aftermath of a
disaster, and we had legislation by Ranking Member Sam Graves trying to
help to cut through that bureaucracy and not have our own Federal
Government revictimize our disaster victims, who are citizens of this
country.
In the aftermath of a disaster--which, being from south Louisiana, we
experience, unfortunately, way too frequently--we have FEMA, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, that comes in; we have the Small
Business Administration that comes in; we have the Department of
Housing and Urban Development; we have the Department of Agriculture;
and others that all offer different types of emergency aid or programs.
Madam Speaker, apparently, it appears that many of these agencies
aren't aware that there has been this invention called the internet
that connects everybody. Instead of coming in and forcing these
disaster victims, who potentially have lost everything that they own,
to come in and stop by numerous locations and fill out the same
paperwork over and over again, they should come in and apply
commonsense solutions that we have seen in the private sector for
decades now, simply coming in, providing information once, being more
efficient, truly providing service to these disaster victims, instead
of revictimizing them.
I want to thank the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico, my friend, for her
leadership on this effort. I know, being from Puerto Rico and
victimized by Hurricanes Irma, Maria, and others, this is an
extraordinary issue for her constituents. I really do appreciate
Congressman DeFazio, Ranking Member Sam Graves, and others who have
partnered with her on this legislation, allowing it to go through. I
urge adoption of this legislation.
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Guest).
Mr. GUEST. Madam Speaker, I want to first thank Chairman DeFazio and
Ranking Member Graves for bringing this important bipartisan
legislation to the floor.
H.R. 2016 would begin the critical process in working to consolidate
the overlapping disaster response programs that delay disaster
assistance for citizens in Miss Gonzalez-Colon's district, as well as
in my district.
Mississippi has withstood flooding, hurricanes, and tornadoes over
the last 2 years, and many of these response efforts are still underway
today. This is no fault of the Federal agencies that are tasked with
responding, but it is, instead, the product of overlapping programs
that result in duplicative assessments that delay the recovery process.
This bill would establish a Federal working group to help identify a
more streamlined approach to helping Americans respond to natural
disasters.
[[Page H2771]]
This commonsense approach to solving delays in Federal disaster
response would help expedite recovery and give Americans confidence in
the Federal response.
I appreciate Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon's leadership on this issue,
and I ask my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation.
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the
balance of my time.
Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my
time.
Madam Speaker, I just want to say, in closing, that H.R. 2016 is a
good-government, bipartisan piece of legislation that will help
streamline and improve disaster recovery efforts.
It is not just Puerto Rico. It is not just the Caribbean. From the
western part of the United States to even the territories, we are all
affected by natural disasters.
I want to thank, again, Representative Scott Peters from California
for co-leading this legislation, as well as Chairman DeFazio and
Ranking Member Graves for recognizing the merits of this bill.
I urge support of H.R. 2016, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this
legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2016.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________