Disaster Assistance Support for Communities and Homeowners Act of 2017

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 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.

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.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), the author of the bill.

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.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1684, the Disaster Assistance Support for Communities and Homeowners Act of 2017.

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.

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. Speaker, in accordance with House Report 115-193, I include in the Record the following Congressional Budget Cost Estimate for H.R. 1684.

U.S. Congress,

Congressional Budget Office,

Washington, DC, June 27, 2017.

Hon. Bill Shuster,

Chairman, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,

House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has

prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 1684, the

Disaster Assistance Support for Communities and Homeowners

Act of 2017.

If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be

pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Robert

Reese.

Sincerely,

Mark P. Hadley

(For Keith Hall, Director).

Enclosure.

H.R. 1684--Disaster Assistance Support for Communities and Homeowners

Act of 2017

As passed by the House of Representatives on June 26, 2017

H.R. 1684 would require the Federal Emergency Management

Agency (FEMA) to provide technical assistance to community,

homeowner, and similar associations. FEMA would be required

to help such associations take actions after a disaster that

would make them eligible to receive reimbursement from

entities that receive FEMA grants. This legislation also

would require FEMA to submit a report to the Congress on

expanding the areas of condominiums and housing cooperatives

that are eligible for federal disaster relief.

Based on information provided by FEMA, about the cost to

collect information necessary to complete the report, CBO

estimates that implementing H.R. 1684 would cost $1 million

in 2018; such spending would be subject to the availability

of appropriated funds.

Enacting H.R. 1684 would not affect direct spending or

revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.

CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 1684 would not increase net

direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four

consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.

H.R. 1684 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector

mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and

would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.

The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Meghan

Shewsbury and Robert Reese. The estimate was approved by

Theresa Gullo, Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.

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.

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.

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.

Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to please support H.R. 1684, and I yield back the balance of my time.