[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9826-9828]
[From the U.S. 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.
  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

[[Page 9827]]

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 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.

[[Page 9828]]

  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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