Seniors Fraud Prevention Act of 2013

Madam Speaker, I thank very much the gentlelady from the District of Columbia for her clarification; and I, frankly, thank you for having the wisdom in months and years back to have these corrections and these improvements in FEMA, and I know they welcome it.

I am a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee and served as the ranking member on Transportation Security, but know firsthand, as the committee that shares jurisdiction over FEMA, firsthand, in living color, the catastrophe and tragedy of Hurricane Katrina; both in my visits and almost living in New Orleans, as many of our Members did, and then in welcoming over a quarter of a million-plus of New Orleanians into Houston, Texas, being there inside the Astrodome, and seeing eons and eons and layers of beds of people who are Americans and who were Americans who, one could not call them broken, those survivors, if you will, from Hurricane Katrina were not broken. They were people who had worked and had homes and paid taxes.

And so today, Madam Speaker, those who are survivors of Hurricane Sandy are not broken. They are not the cornerstone of the fault of bureaucracy or misuse. They are, in fact, survivors. They are Americans who need our help.

And I'd like to add to this discussion, certainly. I join and want to comment on one or two of the changes here. In particular, the individual assistance factors, I think, will be very helpful to expedite the declaration process for individuals.

I'm very grateful that one of the changes they made, thank goodness, and this is what happened to our seniors, fixing their homes instead of putting them in FEMA trailers. What a celebration.

How many had to stay in FEMA trailers down in the gulf forever and ever and ever while they watched their homes deteriorate because a few simple repairs could not be made. That is a much-needed step.

But I join my colleague from New Jersey and say, how can people who are broken and who are in need come up with 35 percent? And I hope that this will be one that is reconsidered.

Let me quickly suggest that I am in support of the $5.4 billion for FEMA disaster relief. I'm in support for the $5.4 billion for the Department of Transportation. Anybody who's been on the east coast and seen the transportation corridor and the congestion

and the synergism between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York realizes that this is crucial.

The $3.9 billion for community block grant, I am told that there are Hurricane Sandy islanders, people on Staten Island, people on Coney Island, who are living in New York downtown hotels. I'm sure in a better day they would enjoy living in high-rise, high-class hotels; but they are people that want to go back to their home, and I'm delighted that we'll have that.

And then I want to support the additional amendment that calls for, the gentleman from New Jersey, $33 billion unfettered dollars that will help additional resources.

I believe that we should have done this last week. But I know that my colleagues will be reading the Constitution tomorrow, so let me read from article I, section 8:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes,

duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for

the common defense and general welfare of the United States.

My God, my God, can we provide for the general welfare of those Hurricane Sandy survivors who are not victims but have lost loved ones and, in fact, are the second most-costly hurricane in America's history, Katrina, Sandy, and Hurricane Ike.

I speak from what I know. I beg of this Congress to vote for the New Jersey amendment for $33 billion and, as well, the others; and let us be able to look back on their needs and go back to the table to help them if they are in need. The Constitution asks us to do that.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to support H.R. 219, ``the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013,'' this bill is designed to speed up disaster relief granted through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) it amends Title IV of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to Expedite hazard mitigation projects by streamlining the environmental review and requires the President to establish an expedited review for environmental and historic requirements for rebuilding damage infrastructure. Further, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act will give local governments' greater flexibility to consolidate or rebuild facilities by allowing FEMA to issue fixed price grants on the basis of damaged estimates instead of a traditional entitlement guarantee to cover all cost increases over time.

Last month, the Administration requested $60.4 billion in federal aid to provide financial assistance to homeowners and businesses affected by Hurricane Sandy.

In the 112th Congress, on December 28, 2012, the Senate passed a $61 billion comprehensive aid package for the victims and communities by a vote of 62-32.

I am pleased that this body was able to pass H.R. 41, $9.7 billion bill which temporarily increased the borrowing authority of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for carrying out the National Flood Insurance Program.

Now that the President has signed H.R. 41, victims of Superstorm Sandy are finally able to receive some much-needed relief from the federal government.

However, the relief that H.R. 41 granted was limited in scope and insufficient to address the entirety of the situation faced by residents of the affected areas. The House must finish the job. Again the measure before us today does not appropriate additional funds, but it does attempt to address the backlog. This bill would:

Cut debris removal costs dramatically by utilizing reforms from a successful 2006 Debris Removal Pilot program that enable operations to be conducted in a more cost-effective manner and incentivize the completion of projects on-time and under budget.

Save money, as demonstrated by a 2006 pilot program, by authorizing FEMA to make limited repairs to existing housing structures when those repairs cost less than a lease payment for traditional FEMA trailers.

Adjudicate claim disputes quicker and avoid cost overruns, the bill establishes a limited dispute resolution pilot.

Require FEMA to review and update factors for individual assistance disaster declarations to make them less subjective. Provides for disaster declarations for tribal communities.

Direct FEMA to submit recommendations to Congress for the development of national strategy to reduce future costs, loss of life, and injuries associated with extreme disaster events.

Since this historic storm devastated the east coast in late October, the people impacted by the storm, particularly those in the Tri-State area of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, have been waiting patiently for the federal government to act as they continue to engage in efforts to rebuild their communities.

However, the time for patience has long since expired, and these Americans can no longer wait for Congress to act to provide comprehensive relief.

For families without a home, and for businesses without a storefront or customers, this situation has been an ongoing nightmare. These families and businesses have been waiting for Congress to join them in their struggle to pick up the pieces and put their communities back together.

The proposal before us is our opportunity to step up and help to restore these suffering communities; that is the role of the federal government.

Every state in this country is, at any given moment in time, at risk for experiencing a devastating and costly natural or manmade disaster. When state and local governments face overwhelming challenges that are too big and too expensive to ever hope to resolve in isolation, the federal government should be there to quickly assist them in their recovery. That is what makes us strong as a nation; that we can come together when necessary to prevent the pieces of our country from crumbling individually.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 219) to improve and streamline disaster assistance for Hurricane Sandy, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 219.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to thank Chairman Shuster of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for his leadership on this legislation. His knowledge and years of experience on these issues have been critical to crafting this legislation and bringing it before the House for consideration today. I also want to thank Ranking Member Norton, Ranking Member Rahall, and former Chairman Mica for all of their work and support for these reforms.

H.R. 219, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013, will save money and help devastated communities rebuild much faster than under current programs. However, in order to help those communities impacted by Sandy, the FEMA Administrator has made it very clear that these reforms must be signed into law by March 1. Many of these reforms were already passed by the House in September as part of H.R. 2903. There is also widespread and bipartisan support for these reforms in the Senate. In addition, this bill has strong support from key stakeholders and experts, representing emergency managers, State and local officials, and tribal communities. We know these reforms work. Chairman Shuster laid the groundwork in 2006 when his post-Katrina reform act authorized FEMA to conduct a number of recovery pilot programs.

The results are very clear.

In each case, costs were dramatically reduced, projects were completed faster, and their process was much more efficient. For example, without making permanent the debris removal pilot program the taxpayer could end up paying six times the cost for debris removal, and it will take much longer. The individuals and households pilot program incorporated in this bill would reduce costs by a similar amount and make temporary housing available faster.

In hearing after hearing before our committee, experts, FEMA, and the Office of the Inspector General have all testified communities will be rebuilt faster and taxpayers will save hundreds of millions of dollars with this bill. We know the current process is broken, and we finally know how to fix it, but we have to change the law by March or it will be too late to apply those lessons to the Sandy recovery. It has been nearly 8 years since Hurricane Katrina, and there are still projects that are unresolved. We don't want to have the same mistakes happen with Hurricane Sandy. These reforms will help address those programs, streamline the process, allow communities to rebuild faster and smarter, and save money.

The provisions of H.R. 219 are proven and commonsense reforms that have bipartisan support. I urge my colleagues to support the passage of

Madam Speaker, I wish to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, the new chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Mr. Shuster.

Madam Speaker, I would just remind the gentleman from New Jersey that this bill was passed in September by this House and has been sitting in the Senate since September. Even though the President's own appointee, Director Fugate, has been asking for this bill, it has been sitting. So we're looking forward to a bipartisan solution that gets done before March so we can actually help out the Sandy relief fund.

I would just like to point to a couple quick facts. The New Orleans Youth Study Center project, as an example, as you'll see from this chart, Katrina was in 2005. Here's what the Governor's office has put together. This one project isn't going to be done until 2016. After 182 meetings and 7 years of bureaucratic red tape, this one project won't be done until 2016; and that's if all goes well, that's when Louisiana hopes to finish this. That's 11 years after Hurricane Katrina. The single biggest factor in cost increases is time, and these delays will almost double the project from $15 million to $28 million. FEMA has spent almost $5 million on a temporary facility alone.

There are literally thousands of projects like this across the gulf coast, and there will be thousands more of budget-busting projects in New York and New Jersey if we don't get these reforms signed into law.

At this time, Madam Speaker, I'd like to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Palazzo).

Madam Speaker, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act will speed up recovery efforts and reduce costs. I want to just touch on one important piece of this legislation. It will allow greater flexibility to reduce rebuilding time and lower costs. This gives the local governments greater flexibility to consolidate or rebuild facilities by allowing FEMA to issue fixed grants on the basis of damage estimates, instead of a traditional reimbursement program.

Why that's important--in my area, in the Central Valley of California, we had huge flooding; and as any emergency, you're not prepared. You didn't anticipate it, especially where we have such a huge shortage of water in the Central Valley.

When the flooding hit, there was a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding among local, State and Federal Government, who pays for what, a lot of delays and waiting. With these cost estimates up front, we basically just say spend the money on those estimates, and the FEMA money is there immediately.

So we not only help to reduce costs; but most importantly, when you've got a devastated community, what you need is speed of recovery.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, just in closing, I want to talk about one final example, and it deals with the debris removal. Our bill dealing with debris removal will change, literally saving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Without the change in law, FEMA was able to get a 30-day pilot program. This is with Sandy, had a 30-day pilot program, where in New Jersey, utilizing the pilot program, they removed debris for $19 per cubic yard. In Long Island, using the Army Corps of Engineers, it was $129 per yard. That is a huge significant savings, one that, in the debris removal part of this, the 30-day pilot, it's time for it to move along and become part of law. We need to do this now.

This bill has broad support from a number of different areas, including the National League of Cities, the United States Conference of Mayors, the Association of State Floodplain Managers, the International Association of Emergency Managers, the Disaster Recovery Contractors Association, the National Association of Counties, the United South and Eastern Tribes Incorporation, just to name a few.

With that, Madam Speaker, I would ask for a favorable vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to thank Mr. Shuster, Mr. Rahall, and my good friend Mr. Denham for their very important work to bring this matter to the floor so soon after the recess. I'm sure everyone appreciates it, and I certainly associate myself with the remarks of Mr. Denham. He and I worked on the very passages he quoted.

I, therefore, rise in support of H.R. 219, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013. This bipartisan measure consists of reforms to expedite the recovery process for those communities that received disaster declarations for

Hurricane Sandy as well as for future Presidentially declared disasters. I do believe this may be the first time that some of these reforms with any significant event have been tested because many of the provisions included in the bill are matters that we have long worked for and that were incorporated into similar legislation in past Congresses. Several of the provisions will streamline the rebuilding process to provide jobs in the region and to achieve full recovery. The measure is also supported by the International Association of Emergency Managers, the Association of State Floodplain Managers, the National League of Cities, and more.

After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Congress enacted two pilot programs: one for debris removal and another allowing FEMA to make limited repairs instead of lease payments to provide housing when cheaper than using temporary trailers. Both pilot programs were successful and resulted in savings for the Federal Government. Local governments and emergency management professionals have discussed the need to make the debris removal program permanent in order to expedite debris recovery. The housing program will be especially useful in large urban areas, such as in New York City, where temporary trailers simply are not an option. This bill would codify both expired pilot programs, providing additional tools for FEMA to help communities recover.

This measure would also authorize FEMA to use fixed grants based on cost estimates at the request of the local community--another favorite we have been pressing for years. Although Congress authorized FEMA to use cost estimating 12 years ago, which is the way the insurance industry does it, for example, FEMA has not done so. The new authorization includes incentives for the local communities to use cost estimating by allowing them to rebuild according to today's needs and by eliminating long delays in the recovery process caused by cost disputes. Moreover, this provision explicitly authorizes FEMA and the applicant to mutually agree on a professionally licensed expert to prepare a cost estimate to be relied upon by FEMA instead of using an adversarial process in which both hire their own cost estimators, paid for by the Federal Government, and then get into a dispute as to which one is the best to use. This process alone will eliminate one of the most inefficient uses of Federal funds I have ever heard of in which FEMA pays for the State's experts to submit competing estimates of the costs of repair to the government's experts. No more of that. No more waste from that.

Finally, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held an oversight hearing last month on the preparedness, response to, and recovery from Hurricane Sandy. At that hearing, I questioned FEMA Administrator Fugate about the need to expedite the dispute resolution process. I am pleased to state that this bill includes a 3-year dispute resolution pilot program for FEMA to draft procedures in order to expedite project closure and to decrease recovery costs caused by project delays.

Madam Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

First, let me say I appreciate the gentleman's remarks and comparing what we are going through here to what we all went through. He and I were both on the committee after Hurricane Katrina. I can tell you, we never expected to see anything like it, particularly in this part of the country. I certainly agree that this is the time to finally get these reforms done. This is the time to get it done, when we've got a huge Katrina-like event and we've got everybody's attention and we're going to save millions upon millions of dollars. I thank the gentleman.

I'm pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt).

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I just want to say that I'm pleased to see that the gentleman from Mississippi has done what we have always done when any part of our country faced a disaster, we all closed in, and we really closed in like nothing you've ever seen with Mississippi and Louisiana, and nobody from the east coast rose to have any problem with moving in.

The reforms this bill now contains, the reforms of Chairman Denham and me, and before Chairman Denham came to the Congress, reforms that had been in our bill for some time; and it is true that these have not come out, and we have got a lever now to get them out. And when we get them out, they're going to help Mississippi and Louisiana, and they have more of this than the east coast has ever had. And it's going to help all the unforeseen places that now we are seeing experience precisely what only certain parts of the country before had had to endure.

I'm pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

I yield the gentlewoman 30 more seconds.

I want to agree with the chairman of the subcommittee about cost estimates and how it saves money and how it is one of the many lessons learned that I think will be acted out in this bill.

Madam Speaker, this bill is a downpayment. We all understand this. We understand that the devastation done in four States, I believe it is, was of a magnitude of what we experienced for the first time at the gulf coast.

We are going to come around, and we're going to do what we're supposed to do at times like this. But when we have a major event like this, it does not pay to simply go along doing things the way we have always done them.

This is when things get corrected. This bill is a good step toward correcting what our committee and our subcommittee have tried to do for years now. I appreciate all the effort of my friends and colleagues on the other side and, of course, Mr. Rahall and our friends who have also, in a bipartisan fashion, pushed for these changes and now have an opportunity to see how they work in a laboratory that is a very big one indeed, one far larger than we expected, but one from which we will also learn what is yet still to be learned about these major disasters.

Madam Speaker, I have no more speakers, and I am pleased to yield back the remainder of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 219, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013. This bipartisan bill would improve how the Federal Government helps state, tribal and local communities respond to and recover from disasters by expediting the delivery of Federal assistance. The provisions will have an immediate impact in helping to expedite recovery in those areas that suffered damage from Hurricane Sandy and will help all communities that may experience future disasters.

We must continue to improve our disaster response programs to ensure that timely assistance is provided to individuals in need. At my request, this bill would require, within one year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to review and update its criteria for issuing Individual Assistance, in order to clarify the eligibility requirements, expedite the Federal government's decision-making process, and minimize bureaucratic delays.

Last year, the State of West Virginia received four Presidential disaster declarations, the last two in response to Hurricane Sandy and Derecho Storms. In both cases, West Virginians had to endure extended and widespread power outages, lasting weeks in some cases, as well as physical damage to their homes and businesses. The emotional trauma was severe with some areas were literally cut off from basic necessities like food, water, and medicine. These disasters proved costly and expensive and dwarfed the limited means of individuals, many of them seniors on fixed incomes who have been pummeled by multiple storms, to absorb uninsured costs on their own.

In both cases, FEMA denied my State's initial request for Individual Assistance, forcing the State to redo its damage assessments and appeal FEMA's decision. FEMA later reversed itself and awarded Individual Assistance to some, but not all, of the requesting West Virginia counties in regard to the Derecho Storm; so far, the appeal related to Sandy is still pending.

These delays leave uninsured disaster victims in limbo for weeks, unable to begin home repairs because they do not know what costs are reimbursable. State emergency officials need better guidance from FEMA about eligibility criteria for Individual Assistance, so that these delays can be avoided. Similarly, the criteria must be flexible enough to ensure that the Individual Assistance program accomplishes what it was created to do, which is to make financial assistance for uninsured losses available to families and individuals unable to recover on their own.

Another important provision of this bill is one that recognizes tribal sovereignty by authorizing all federally recognized Indian tribes to directly request that the President declare a disaster or emergency. This provision is based on a bill, H.R. 1953, that I introduced last Congress after consulting with Indian country and Indian organizations. It would treat all federally recognized Indian tribes as the sovereign governments that they are and creates a mechanism that affords all tribes the option to request a disaster declaration when a State in which they are located fails to do so.

This important measure is necessary because current law limits FEMA's ability to work directly with all Indian tribes when major disasters or emergency situations occurred. This language would improve federal emergency response and recovery efforts on Indian reservations and would amend the Stafford Act to align with the Federal Government's trust responsibilities. For more than a decade, tribal governments have sought this authorization to work directly with FEMA on emergency and disaster declarations from the President. My bill, and this provision, is supported by Indian Country and the Administration without qualification.

I appreciate the manner in which this bipartisan bill was developed and look forward to working with my Republican colleagues on other issues in a similar manner.

I urge my colleagues to support this measure.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Denham) for his leadership and for sponsoring this important legislation.

We are proud to have strong bipartisan support. Thanks go to Member Rahall and Ms. Holmes Norton for her support on this and working closely with us. In fact, the gentlelady from Washington, D.C., and I worked very closely 8 years ago on many of these reforms that we're going to expand from pilot projects.

I would also like to acknowledge my predecessor and friend, our former chairman, Mr. Mica, who's been a leader on these issues, and also to thank Mr. Palazzo from Mississippi, who offered important suggestions to improve this legislation.

I'm proud to be a cosponsor. These bipartisan Federal Emergency Management Agency and disaster recovery improvements will speed up and streamline Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts. And they will also, importantly, reduce costs.

We worked to target improvements that will specifically help communities in the immediate aftermath of Sandy. These are critical, bipartisan reforms supported by FEMA and key experts and stakeholders. We understand from FEMA Administrator Fugate that these reforms must be enacted by March 1 to help the recovery from Hurricane Sandy.

I have worked on these issues since serving as chairman of the Subcommittee on Emergency Management, as I mentioned, with the gentlelady from Washington, 8 years ago. At that time, I witnessed the devastation following Hurricane Katrina. We saw how our emergency management capability broke down, and significant reforms were needed. We crafted legislation to put FEMA back together again within the Department of Homeland Security, reformed and strengthened our response capability and created pilot programs to test out innovative ways to improve our recovery process.

While we have made significant improvements in disaster preparedness and response since Katrina, there is so much red tape in the recovery programs that rebuilding takes several years longer than it should. The longer communities take to rebuild, the higher the economic losses to those communities and the more it costs the taxpayers.

The pilot programs we created after Katrina laid the foundation for many of these reforms. From the debris removal and public assistance pilot program to the individual and household pilot programs, the savings were significant, and in some cases up to six times less expensive. And these pilot programs did not just save money, but they actually got things done faster.

The Sandy Recovery Improvement Act builds on the important work we started after Hurricane Katrina. Specifically, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act will: streamline environmental review procedures; allow greater flexibility to reduce rebuilding time and lower costs; reduce debris removal costs; provide flexibility and less expensive housing costs; and call for recommendations for reducing costs for future disasters.

As the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I look forward to working on a FEMA reauthorization bill in the future and moving other important FEMA reforms later in Congress.

However, today I know FEMA needs these reforms, and so I urge all my colleagues to support this in order for us to save hundreds of millions of dollars in Sandy recovery.