S.Amdt. 1820

SA 1820. Mr. RISCH (for himself and Mrs. Shaheen) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 4049, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2021 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the appropriate place in subtitle E of title VIII,
insert the following:

SEC. __. DISASTER DECLARATION IN RURAL AREAS.

(a) In General.--Section 7(b) of the Small Business Act (15
U.S.C. 636(b)) is amended by inserting after paragraph (15)
the following:
``(16) Disaster declaration in rural areas.--
``(A) Definitions.--In this paragraph--
``(i) the term `rural area' means an area with a population
of less than 200,000 outside an urbanized area; and
``(ii) the term `significant damage' means, with respect to
property, uninsured losses of not less than 40 percent of the
estimated fair replacement value or pre-disaster fair market
value of the damaged property, whichever is lower.
``(B) Disaster declaration.--Notwithstanding section
123.3(a) of title 13, Code of Federal Regulations, or any
successor regulation, the Administrator may declare a
disaster in a rural area for which a major disaster was
declared by the President under section 401 of the Robert T.
Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42
U.S.C. 5170) if--
``(i) the Governor of the State in which the rural area is
located requests such a declaration; and
``(ii) any home, small business concern, private nonprofit
organization, or small agricultural cooperative has incurred
significant damage in the rural area.
``(C) SBA report.--Not later than 120 days after the date
of enactment of this Act, and every year thereafter, the
Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Small Business
and Entrepreneurship of the Senate and the Committee on Small
Business of the House of Representatives a report on, with
respect to the 1-year period preceding submission of the
report--
``(i) any economic injury that resulted from a major
disaster declared by the President under section 401 of the
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance
Act (42 U.S.C. 5170) in a rural area;
``(ii) each request for assistance made by the Governor of
a State under subparagraph (B)(i) and the response of the
Administrator, including the timeline for each response; and
``(iii) any regulatory changes that will impact the ability
of communities in rural areas to obtain disaster assistance
under this subsection.''.
(b) Regulations.--Not later than 120 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Small
Business Administration shall issue regulations to carry out
the amendment made by subsection (a).
(c) GAO Report.--
(1) Definition of rural area.--In this subsection, the term
``rural area'' means an area with a population of less than
200,000 outside an urbanized area.
(2) Report.--Not later than 120 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United
States shall submit to the Committee on Small Business and
Entrepreneurship of the Senate and the Committee on Small
Business of the House of Representatives a report on--
(A) any unique challenges that communities in rural areas
face compared to communities in metropolitan areas when
seeking to obtain disaster assistance under section 7(b) of
the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(b)); and
(B) legislative recommendations for improving access to
disaster assistance for communities in rural areas.
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