[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.

                          ____________________