[Senate Report 118-228]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 520
118th Congress} { Report
SENATE
2d Session } { 118-228
======================================================================
FACILITATING HAZARD MITIGATION PROJECTS ACT
__________
R E P O R T
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
TO ACCOMPANY
S. 3067
TO REQUIRE THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT AGENCY TO CONDUCT AN EVALUATION AND
SUBMIT TO CONGRESS A REPORT ON WAYS TO REDUCE THE
COMPLEXITY OF THE COST EFFECTIVENESS REQUIREMENTS FOR
HAZARD MITIGATION ASSISTANCE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
September 23, 2024.--Ordered to be printed
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 2024
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COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
GARY C. PETERS, Michigan, Chairman
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware RAND PAUL, Kentucky
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JON OSSOFF, Georgia RICK SCOTT, Florida
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri
LAPHONZA R. BUTLER, California ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas
David M. Weinberg, Staff Director
Alan S. Kahn, Chief Counsel
Christopher J. Mulkins, Director of Homeland Security
Naveed Jazayeri, Senior Professional Staff Member
William E. Henderson III, Minority Staff Director
Christina N. Salazar, Minority Chief Counsel
Andrew J. Hopkins, Minority Counsel
Megan M. Krynen, Minority Professional Staff Member
Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
Calendar No. 520
118th Congress} { Report
SENATE
2d Session } { 118-228
======================================================================
FACILITATING HAZARD MITIGATION PROJECTS ACT
_______
September 23, 2024.--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. 3067]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 3067), to require
the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to
conduct an evaluation and submit to Congress a report on ways
to reduce the complexity of the cost effectiveness requirements
for hazard mitigation assistance, and for other purposes,
having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with an
amendment in the nature of a substitute and recomends 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..............................................3
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Bill, as Reported.............3
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................4
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................4
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............5
I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY
S. 3067, the Facilitating Hazard Mitigation Projects Act,
would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to
evaluate how to reduce the complexity of its cost-effectiveness
requirements for hazard mitigation grants, and report to
Congress on that evaluation. It also requires FEMA to consult
with appropriate federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial
governments, and nonprofit partners on its evaluation.
Additionally, the bill requires FEMA to submit a report to the
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
prior to implementing the findings of their evaluation.
II. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR LEGISLATION
FEMA provides various types of hazard mitigation assistance
to states, local governments, tribes, and territories.\1\
Hazard mitigation projects are projects that provide funding
for eligible mitigation activities that protect life and
property from future disaster damage.\2\ For most projects,
applicants are required to submit information showing that the
hazard mitigation activity will be cost effective, which FEMA
calls the benefit-cost analysis (BCA).\3\ BCA is a method that
determines the future risk reduction benefits of a hazard
mitigation project and compares those benefits to the
activity's costs.\4\ Applicants and subapplicants must use
FEMA-approved methodologies and tools to demonstrate the cost-
effectiveness of their projects.\5\
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\1\Federal Emergency Management Agency, Hazard Mitigation
Assistance Program and Policy Guide Executive Summary (Mar. 23, 2023)
(www.fema.gov/print/pdf/node/653205).
\2\Id.
\3\See Federal Emergency Management Agency, BCA Reference Guide
(June 2009) (www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/
fema_bca_reference-guide.pdf).
\4\Federal Emergency Management Agency, Benefit-Cost Analysis (Oct.
2023) (www.fema.gov/grants/tools/benefit-cost-
analysis#::text=Benefit%2DCost%20Analysis%20(BCA),BCR%20is%
201.0%20or%20greater).
\5\Id.
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Applicants for mitigation grants have provided extensive
feedback that BCA is cumbersome and finding the right data to
include in the calculations of costs and benefits is difficult,
limiting their ability to undertake resilience projects.\6\ In
addition, a FEMA-commissioned report released in early 2023 by
the RAND Corporation found BCA for hazard mitigation grants is
cumbersome, overly complicated, and puts under-resourced
communities at a disadvantage for accessing mitigation
funds.\7\ This report echoed previous findings from the
Government Accountability Office (GAO), which interviewed state
and local jurisdictions that revealed BCA for hazard mitigation
grants is a challenge due to the required data to complete the
analysis and a lack of resources.\8\ The RAND report compared
how FEMA implements their benefit cost analysis to other
federal departments and agencies that are also required to
ensure their funded grants are cost-effective.\9\ Specifically,
the report found FEMA has some of the most complicated and
inaccessible procedures across the federal government.\10\ For
example, the Federal Aviation Administration's Airport
Improvement Program does not require full BCAs for projects
under $10 million.\11\
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\6\RAND Corporation, The Cost of Cost-Effectiveness: Expanding
Equity in Federal Emergency Management Agency Hazard Mitigation
Assistance Grants (2023) (www.rand.org/pubs/
research_reports/RRA2171-1.html).
\7\Id.
\8\Government Accountability Office, Disaster Resilience: FEMA
Should Take Additional Steps to Streamline Hazard Mitigation Grants and
Assess Program Effects (GAO-21-140) (Feb. 2021).
\9\RAND Corporation, The Cost of Cost-Effectiveness: Expanding
Equity in Federal Emergency Management Agency Hazard Mitigation
Assistance Grants (2023) (www.rand.org/pubs/
research_reports/RRA2171-1.html).
\10\Id.
\11\Federal Aviation Administration, Airport Improvement Program
Handbook (Feb. 26, 2019) (https://www.faa.gov/airports/aip/
aip_handbook/media/AIP-Handbook-Order-5100-38D-Chg1.pdf).
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While FEMA has made some changes to simplify BCA, RAND
found the agency's stakeholder outreach was limited and the
changes are not consistent among all hazard mitigation
assistance programs.\12\ To simplify FEMA's cost-effectiveness
requirements for hazard mitigation grants, this bill would
require the agency to conduct an evaluation and submit a report
to relevant congressional committees on ways to reduce the
complexity of the cost effectiveness requirements for hazard
assistance. Under this bill, FEMA would still be required to
make sure that grants are cost-effective, meaningfully reduce a
community's risk to natural hazards, and meet all other grant
eligibility requirements. All grants would still be subject to
oversight by FEMA, GAO, the Department of Homeland Security
Office of Inspector General, and Congress.
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\12\RAND Corporation, The Cost of Cost-Effectiveness: Expanding
Equity in Federal Emergency Management Agency Hazard Mitigation
Assistance Grants (2023) (www.rand.org/pubs/
research_reports/RRA2171-1.html).
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III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) introduced S. 3067, the
Facilitating Hazard Mitigation Projects Act, on October 18,
2023, with original cosponsor Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA). The
bill was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs.
The Committee considered S. 3067 at a business meeting on
October 25, 2023. At the business meeting, Senator Peters
offered a substitute amendment to the bill, as well as a
modification to the substitute amendment. The Peters substitute
amendment, as modified, changed the FEMA briefing requirement
to take place in 180 days instead of 6 months, included
language stating no additional funding is authorized to be
appropriated for this bill, and specified which congressional
committees FEMA is required to report to and that the report is
required to be submitted to Congress prior to the
implementation of any findings. The Committee adopted the
modification to the Peters substitute amendment by unanimous
consent, with Senator Peters, Hassan, Sinema, Rosen, Ossoff,
Blumenthal, Butler, Paul, Lankford, Romney, and Scott present.
The Committee adopted the Peters substitute amendment, as
modified, by unanimous consent, with Senator Peters, Hassan,
Sinema, Rosen, Ossoff, Blumenthal, Butler, Paul, Lankford,
Romney, and Scott present.
The bill, as amended by the Peters substitute amendment, as
modified, was ordered reported favorably by a roll call vote of
10 yeas and 1 nay, with Senator Peters, Hassan, Sinema, Rosen,
Ossoff, Blumenthal, Butler, Lankford, Romney, and Scott voting
in the affirmative, and Senator Paul in the negative. Senators
Carper, Johnson, Hawley, and Marshall voted yea by proxy, for
the record only.
IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED
Section 1. Short title
This section establishes the short title of the bill as the
``Facilitating Hazard Mitigation Projects Act.''
Section 2. Report on cost effectiveness requirements for hazard
mitigation assistance
Subsection (a) defines the term ``covered assistance.''
Subsection (b) requires the FEMA Administrator within 360
days of enactment to conduct an evaluation on how to reduce the
complexity of the cost effectiveness requirements for covered
assistance and submit to Congress a report detailing the
findings of that evaluation before implementing any of the
evaluation's findings.
Subsection (c) requires the FEMA Administrator, when
conducting the evaluation outlined in subsection (b), to
consult with appropriate federal, state, local, tribal, and
territorial governments, and nonprofit organizations to discuss
proposals and receive feedback related to reducing the
complexity of cost effectiveness analysis for covered
assistance.
Subsection (d) requires FEMA Administrator to brief
relevant congressional committees on the status of the
evaluation required under subsection (b), and the outreach
carried out under subsection (c) within 180 days.
Subsection (e) contains a rule of construction stating that
nothing in this bill can be construed to modify any cost
effectiveness requirements of FEMA related to covered
assistance after enactment.
Subsection (f) provides that no additional funds are
authorized to be appropriated for the purpose of this bill.
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
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
S. 3067 would require the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) to evaluate ways to reduce the complexity of cost
effectiveness requirements for several grant programs
administered by the agency related to reducing the effects of
future disasters. The bill would require FEMA to consult with
relevant state, local, and tribal governments, as well as
nonprofit organizations, and to report to the Congress on the
results of that evaluation within one year of enactment. The
programs covered by the evaluation include:
The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program,
The Public Assistance Program,
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and
Communities Program, and
The Flood Mitigation Assistance Program.
Using information from FEMA and about the cost of similar
activities, CBO expects that the agency would require the
equivalent of five full-time employees in 2024 and 2025, at an
average annual cost of $150,000, to implement the bill,
primarily to conduct outreach to the affected governments and
nonprofits and analyze the resulting comments. On that basis,
CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost $1 million
over the 2024-2028 period; such spending would be subject to
the availability of appropriated funds.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jon Sperl. The
estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director
of Budget Analysis.
Phillip L. Swagel,
Director, Congressional Budget Office.
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.
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