[Senate Report 117-205]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                     Calendar No. 557
117th Congress      }                           {         Report
                                 SENATE
 2d Session         }                           {         117-205
_______________________________________________________________________


               HAZARD ELIGIBILITY AND LOCAL PROJECTS ACT

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 of the

                   COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND

                          GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                              to accompany

                                S. 1877

             TO MODIFY ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTAIN
             HAZARD MITIGATION ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS, AND FOR
                             OTHER PURPOSES

		[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


               November 17, 2022.--Ordered to be printed
               
               
               		       __________
               		       
               		       
               	    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE	       
               
39-010			    WASHINGTON : 2022               
               
               
               
               
               
        COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                   GARY C. PETERS, Michigan, Chairman
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware           ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              RAND PAUL, Kentucky
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
ALEX PADILLA, California             MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JON OSSOFF, Georgia                  RICK SCOTT, Florida
                                     JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri

                   David M. Weinberg, Staff Director
                    Zachary I. Schram, Chief Counsel
         Christopher J. Mulkins, Director of Homeland Security
           Naveed Jazayeri, Senior Professional Staff Member
                Pamela Thiessen, Minority Staff Director
            Sam J. Mulopulos, Minority Deputy Staff Director
       Clyde E. Hicks Jr., Minority Director of Homeland Security
                     Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk




                                                     Calendar No. 557
117th Congress      }                           {         Report
                                 SENATE
 2d Session         }                           {         117-205

======================================================================

 
               HAZARD ELIGIBILITY AND LOCAL PROJECTS ACT

                                _______
                                

               November 17, 2022.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

 Mr. Peters, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
                    Affairs, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 1877]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 1877) to modify 
eligibility requirements for certain hazard mitigation 
assistance programs, and for other purposes, having considered 
the same, reports favorably thereon with an amendment in the 
nature of a substitute and recommends that the bill, as 
amended, do pass.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
  I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
 II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History..............................................2
 IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Bill, as Reported.............3
  V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................3
 VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................4
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............6

                         I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

    S. 1877, the Hazard Eligibility and Local Projects Act, 
makes an entity seeking assistance under a Federal Emergency 
Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) 
program eligible to receive such assistance for acquisition and 
demolition projects in progress before a grant is awarded. 
Currently, an applicant beginning work on a project before FEMA 
grants an award would make it ineligible to receive assistance.
    Additionally, the bill creates requirements for the FEMA 
Administrator to submit an annual report to Congress on the use 
of authority under this legislation. The bill includes a sunset 
provision of three years after the date of enactment.

              II. BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR THE LEGISLATION

    Buyouts are a mitigation tool used by the government to 
purchase private property, demolish structures, and create 
open-space preserved land that serve natural flood and other 
hazard mitigation purposes.\1\ Under the HMA program, 
acquisitions are eligible uses to qualify for FEMA grants, and 
are often used to reduce flood risk. For decades, FEMA has 
provided state and local governments funding to buy out 
thousands of flood damaged properties in the United States.\2\ 
Data shows that approximately 70 percent of FEMA approved 
buyout projects were approved within two years of respective 
disasters, 30 percent took longer, and typically several years 
pass between project approval and closeout.\3\ This process 
sometimes forces people to live in disaster damaged homes while 
they wait for buyouts which puts them at additional risk for 
future disasters. Currently, FEMA is prohibited from awarding 
grants under HMA programs for projects where physical work has 
occurred prior to final approval of the grant.\4\ Therefore, 
purchasing land and beginning demolition prior to full FEMA 
approval will disqualify a project from receiving a grant under 
HMA. This legislation would allow for these acquisition 
projects to begin before the approval of the HMA grant award.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\Congressional Research Service, Flood Buyouts: Federal Funding 
for Property Acquisition (IN11911) (Apr. 8, 2022).
    \2\Natural Resources Defense Council, Going Under: Long Wait Times 
for Post-Flood Buyouts Leave Homeowners Underwater (R: 19-08-A) (Sept. 
2019).
    \3\Id.
    \4\Federal Emergency Management Agency, Hazard Mitigation 
Assistance Guidance Hazard: Mitigation Grant Program, Pre-Disaster 
Mitigation Program, and Flood Mitigation Assistance Program (Feb. 27, 
2015).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This bill would not result in an increase in any fraudulent 
or poorly executed projects because all projects must still go 
through the normal FEMA review process regardless of whether 
they have been started prior to final approval. Projects 
started before receiving final approval from FEMA would still 
need to be selected for funding, and this measure does not 
require FEMA to approve a project solely because it meets 
eligibility criteria. An entity that begins a project that has 
not received final approval, or is found to be ineligible by 
FEMA, remains responsible for all financial costs incurred if 
not chosen for funding by FEMA.
    Additionally, S. 1877 includes a sunset provision of three 
years after the date of enactment and requires the FEMA 
Administrator to submit an annual report to Congress on the use 
of authority this bill creates. These provisions give Congress 
an opportunity to review the effectiveness and outcomes of this 
legislation.

                        III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    S. 1877 was introduced on May 27, 2021, by Senators Tillis 
(R-NC), Burr (R-NC), Cornyn (R-TX), Cruz (R-TX) and Lankford 
(R-OK). Senator Warnock (D-GA) joined as a cosponsor on 
December 14, 2021, and Senator Hassan (D-NH) joined on August 
2, 2022. Upon introduction, the bill was referred to the Senate 
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
    The Committee considered the legislation at a business 
meeting on August 3, 2022. During the meeting, Chairman Peters 
offered an amendment in the nature of a substitute that 
incorporated technical drafting assistance from FEMA, limits 
the projects covered under this bill to acquisition and 
demolition projects, adds a sunset of three years, and creates 
a reporting requirement for FEMA to assess the use of this 
legislation. The Committee adopted the Peters substitute 
amendment and reported the bill favorably by voice vote, as 
amended. The Senators present were Peters, Hassan, Sinema, 
Rosen, Padilla, Ossoff, Lankford, Romney, Scott, and Hawley.

        IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED

Section 1. Short title

    This section designates the name of the bill as the 
``Hazard Eligibility and Local Projects Act.''

Section 2. Authority to begin implementation of acquisition and 
        demolition assistance projects

    Subsection (a) defines the terms ``Administrator'', 
``Covered Project'' and ``Hazard Mitigation Assistance 
Program''.
    Subsection (b) provides requirements for eligibility under 
the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for covered projects. 
Requirements include compliance with all other eligibility 
requirements of the assistance program for acquisition or 
demolition projects and compliance with all Federal 
requirements. This subsection also provides criteria for the 
FEMA Administrator to follow when determining if a project is 
covered or not. Additionally, this subsection states that an 
entity seeking assistance under the grant program is 
responsible for all project costs incurred if the project is 
determined to be ineligible or not awarded a grant.
    Subsection (c) provides that applicability under this bill 
is limited to projects started on or after the date of 
enactment.
    Subsection (d) requires the FEMA Administrator to submit 
annual reports to Congress on the use of authority under this 
legislation.
    Subsection (e) provides a sunset provision that terminates 
this legislation 3 years after the date of enactment.

                   V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

    Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule 
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has 
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined 
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning 
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional 
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no 
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the 
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs 
on state, local, or tribal governments.

             VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                  Washington, DC, November 9, 2022.
Hon. Gary C. Peters,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. 
        Senate, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed table summarizing estimated budgetary 
effects and mandates information for some of the legislation 
that has been ordered reported by the Senate Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs during the 117th 
Congress.
    If you wish further details, we will be pleased to provide 
them. The CBO staff contact for each estimate is listed on the 
enclosed table.
            Sincerely,
                                         Phillip L. Swagel,
                                                          Director.
    Enclosure.

           SUMMARY ESTIMATES OF LEGISLATION ORDERED REPORTED

    The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires the 
Congressional Budget Office, to the extent practicable, to 
prepare estimates of the budgetary effects of legislation 
ordered reported by Congressional authorizing committees. In 
order to provide the Congress with as much information as 
possible, the attached table summarizes information about the 
estimated direct spending and revenue effects of some of the 
legislation that has been ordered reported by the Senate 
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs during 
the 117th Congress. The legislation listed in this table 
generally would have small effects, if any, on direct spending 
or revenues, CBO estimates. Where possible, the table also 
provides information about the legislation's estimated effects 
on spending subject to appropriation and on intergovernmental 
and private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates 
Reform Act.

                                                  ESTIMATED BUDGETARY EFFECTS AND MANDATES INFORMATION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                       Increases
                                                               Direct                 Spending Subject   Pay-As-You-   On-Budget
   Bill        Title        Status      Last      Budget     Spending,    Revenues,          to              Go         Deficits    Mandates    Contact
  Number                               Action    Function    2023-2032    2023-2032    Appropriation,    Procedures    Beginning
                                                                                          2023-2027        Apply?       in 2033?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S. 1877    Hazard         Ordered     08/03/22  450         0            0            $10 million       No            No           No          Jon Sperl
            Eligibility    reported
            and Local
            Projects Act
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S. 1877 would make additional projects eligible for funding under grant programs that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administers to help
  state and local governments and residential and commercial property owners avert damage from natural disasters in the future. Under the bill, FEMA
  could approve applications to acquire property or relocate structures if a project's planning or construction begins before a grant is awarded and if
  the project is exempt from environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 1877 would not affect
  direct spending or revenues. CBO estimates that implementing the bill would increase discretionary costs by $10 million over the 2023-2027 period, but
  that spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. The bill contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined
  in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.

       VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

    This legislation would make no change in existing law, 
within the meaning of clauses (a) and (b) of subparagraph 12 of 
rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, because this 
legislation would not repeal or amend any provision of current 
law.

                                  [all]