[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 16 (Wednesday, January 25, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H293-H295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FEDERAL DISASTER ASSISTANCE COORDINATION ACT
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 255) 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. 255
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
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``(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 gentleman from
Missouri (Mr. Graves) and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Larsen)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Missouri.
General Leave
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Missouri?
There was no objection.
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico (Mrs. Gonzalez-
Colon) for her leadership on this bill.
H.R. 255 is commonsense legislation to establish a process that is
going to identify ways to streamline and consolidate the collection of
certain disaster information.
While the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is the lead
Federal agency on disasters, there are often many Federal agencies
involved in the disaster response and recovery process.
It is critically important that these agencies are all working
efficiently to minimize overlaps in their assessments and utilize new
technologies to streamline processes.
Specifically, the legislation is going to establish a Federal working
group led by FEMA to coordinate with the Council of the Inspectors
General on Integrity and Efficiency to identify ways to reduce
duplication and streamline the Federal damage assessment process.
This is just a good government bill that will help improve disaster
recovery efforts which were previously passed by the House in the 116th
and 117th Congresses.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this legislation, and I reserve the
balance of my time.
Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 255, the Federal Disaster
Assistance Coordination Act, introduced by Representatives Gonzalez-
Colon, Peters, and Plaskett.
This legislation amends the Disaster Recovery Reform Act to help
Federal agencies streamline and consolidate information collection and
Preliminary Damage Assessments following disasters.
After a major disaster, there is no time to wait for bureaucracy.
However, Federal recovery assistance following 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. The Federal
Government can and should be doing this work smarter.
Mr. Speaker, I support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the
same.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may
consume to the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico (Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon).
Mrs. GONZALEZ-COLON. Mr. Speaker, I would say, first of all, that I
thank Chairman Graves for his leadership and for acting so swiftly to
bring this bill to the floor of the House.
Mr. Speaker, I proudly rise in support of my bill, H.R. 255. I thank
Representatives Scott Peters of California, Stacey Plaskett of the U.S.
Virgin Islands, and Neal Dunn of Florida for cosponsoring this
legislation.
H.R. 255 would establish a process to identify ways to streamline and
consolidate the collection of certain disaster information to start the
recovery process for individuals and families that were devastated by
any natural disaster.
Mr. Speaker, I hear about these issues with delays and confusion
related to requirements and processing of disaster assistance on a
regular basis. I meet with mayors of the island--and this is just in
the case of Puerto Rico--but I know we do have the same process and the
same situation across the Nation. This is a significant source of
frustration for my mayors and my constituents as well as people all
over the country.
While FEMA is the lead Federal agency on disasters, many others are
also often involved in disaster response and recovery, like, for
example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Small
Business Administration, just to name a few.
In the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, and the
seismic activity in Puerto Rico in 2020, we discovered that Federal
agency after Federal agency would require the same information in their
preliminary assessments, which meant tens of thousands of site and
damage assessments.
We see some of this repeating itself in the aftermath of last year's
Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico and Hurricane Ian in Florida and with
other disasters across the Nation.
This is not just a bill for the islands or the territories. This is a
bill for the rest of the Nation on how to manage and get expedited help
and response from Federal agencies.
Currently, there is no process to share these assessments among
Federal agencies, which ultimately causes significant delays for
immediate relief and prolongs recovery. This is compounded by other
administrative issues like frequent staff changes and constituents and
mayors having to work with multiple personnel to handle a single
application or request.
[[Page H295]]
In 2020, FEMA finally decided to begin consolidating assessments for
Puerto Rico to speed up the delivery process across multiple Federal
agencies. Many of these assessments are small, often one part of a
larger project, which has continuously slowed down the recovery
process.
H.R. 255 would establish a Federal working group led by FEMA, in
collaboration with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity
and Efficiency, to identify ways to reduce duplication and modernize
the Federal management assessment process to make it truly agile and
efficient. We need to ensure assistance is provided while safeguarding
taxpayer funds. I think with this bill we can do both.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is critical that these agencies are working
together to minimize overlaps in their assessments and consider the use
of the newest technologies to streamline processes. Very often, we, in
the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, have these same
discussions about what happened in Louisiana, what happened in Florida,
what happened on the East Coast, what happened on the West Coast every
time we have a natural disaster. It always is the same problem.
I trust this bill will expedite disaster recovery across the Nation.
As we have learned in Puerto Rico, it is not if the next disaster will
occur, it is when it is going to happen and how we are going to face
it.
Every 1st of June, another hurricane season begins for the
territories and the eastern coast. Since the last time this language
passed the House in the 117th Congress, we had another direct hit with
Hurricane Fiona.
I am pleased we are considering this bill so early in this 118th
Congress, and that is the reason I thanked our chairman for his
marvelous job bringing this bill to the floor.
I can, therefore, work quickly to make this proposal the law of the
land as part of our efforts to better prepare for disaster response.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this bipartisan
legislation.
{time} 1230
Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for
time, and I am prepared to close. I inquire of my colleague if there
are any remaining speakers on his side.
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.
Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, in closing, this bipartisan
bill passed the House on suspension in the 116th and 117th Congresses.
It will help disaster survivors by taking a step toward streamlining
the Federal Government's fragmented approach to disaster assistance.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, in closing, H.R. 255 is just
good government legislation that is going to help streamline disaster
recovery efforts by improving the coordination efficiency of Federal
agencies involved in disaster assistance.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the bill, and I yield back the balance
of my time.
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. 255.
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.
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