Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act

Mr. Speaker, I would say, first of all, that I thank Chairman Graves for his leadership and for acting so swiftly to bring this bill to the floor of the House.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly rise in support of my bill, H.R. 255. I thank Representatives Scott Peters of California, Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Neal Dunn of Florida for cosponsoring this legislation.

H.R. 255 would establish a process to identify ways to streamline and consolidate the collection of certain disaster information to start the recovery process for individuals and families that were devastated by any natural disaster.

Mr. Speaker, I hear about these issues with delays and confusion related to requirements and processing of disaster assistance on a regular basis. I meet with mayors of the island--and this is just in the case of Puerto Rico--but I know we do have the same process and the same situation across the Nation. This is a significant source of frustration for my mayors and my constituents as well as people all over the country.

While FEMA is the lead Federal agency on disasters, many others are also often involved in disaster response and recovery, like, for example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Small Business Administration, just to name a few.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, and the seismic activity in Puerto Rico in 2020, we discovered that Federal agency after Federal agency would require the same information in their preliminary assessments, which meant tens of thousands of site and damage assessments.

We see some of this repeating itself in the aftermath of last year's Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico and Hurricane Ian in Florida and with other disasters across the Nation.

This is not just a bill for the islands or the territories. This is a bill for the rest of the Nation on how to manage and get expedited help and response from Federal agencies.

Currently, there is no process to share these assessments among Federal agencies, which ultimately causes significant delays for immediate relief and prolongs recovery. This is compounded by other administrative issues like frequent staff changes and constituents and mayors having to work with multiple personnel to handle a single application or request.

In 2020, FEMA finally decided to begin consolidating assessments for Puerto Rico to speed up the delivery process across multiple Federal agencies. Many of these assessments are small, often one part of a larger project, which has continuously slowed down the recovery process.

H.R. 255 would establish a Federal working group led by FEMA, in collaboration with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, to identify ways to reduce duplication and modernize the Federal management assessment process to make it truly agile and efficient. We need to ensure assistance is provided while safeguarding taxpayer funds. I think with this bill we can do both.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is critical that these agencies are working together to minimize overlaps in their assessments and consider the use of the newest technologies to streamline processes. Very often, we, in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, have these same discussions about what happened in Louisiana, what happened in Florida, what happened on the East Coast, what happened on the West Coast every time we have a natural disaster. It always is the same problem.

I trust this bill will expedite disaster recovery across the Nation. As we have learned in Puerto Rico, it is not if the next disaster will occur, it is when it is going to happen and how we are going to face it.

Every 1st of June, another hurricane season begins for the territories and the eastern coast. Since the last time this language passed the House in the 117th Congress, we had another direct hit with Hurricane Fiona.

I am pleased we are considering this bill so early in this 118th Congress, and that is the reason I thanked our chairman for his marvelous job bringing this bill to the floor.

I can, therefore, work quickly to make this proposal the law of the land as part of our efforts to better prepare for disaster response.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 255 to amend the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 to develop a study regarding streamlining and consolidating information collection and preliminary damage assessments.

Specifically, the Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act extends the deadline for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to conduct a study and develop a plan under which the collection of information from disaster assistance applicants and grantees will be made less difficult and time consuming for applicants and grantees.

H.R. 255 also would require FEMA to create a plan for the collection and reporting of data regarding federal disaster aid awarded.

In addition, FEMA must provide Congress with a detailed report on the strategies for organizing and expediting data collection, and preliminary damage assessments.

Natural disasters are occurring more often and are causing more damages and adverse impacts for Americans, including harm to homes and property.

On August 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, just north of Corpus Christi, as a category 4 storm.

An estimated 13 million people were impacted by Harvey, nearly 135,000 homes were damaged or destroyed by the catastrophic flooding, and up to a million cars were totaled.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm caused $125 billion in damages. Except for Hurricane Katrina, that number surpasses all previous natural disasters in American history.

In order to support reaction and recovery activities across 270,000 square miles, FEMA organized massive deployments of federal employees both before and after the hurricanes' landfalls.

Only $571.8 million in FEMA aid was given to Texas households out of the disaster's $125 billion in damages.

Despite the fact that catastrophe required a great deal of aid, few people actually received aid due to obstacles in the application process.

H.R. 255 would eliminate some of the obstacles that Texas residents experienced when attempting to obtain federal aid after Hurricane Harvey.

This bill would streamline the collection of information, reduce duplication of process, and make it easier for disaster victims to obtain assistance.

Lawmakers must improve the process for our constituents to receive aid as we see an uprise in these climate disasters.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation that would make the federal assistance process easier for victims of natural disasters.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 255) to amend the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 to develop a study regarding streamlining and consolidating information collection and preliminary damage assessments, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico (Mrs. Gonzalez- Colon) for her leadership on this bill.

H.R. 255 is commonsense legislation to establish a process that is going to identify ways to streamline and consolidate the collection of certain disaster information.

While the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is the lead Federal agency on disasters, there are often many Federal agencies involved in the disaster response and recovery process.

It is critically important that these agencies are all working efficiently to minimize overlaps in their assessments and utilize new technologies to streamline processes.

Specifically, the legislation is going to establish a Federal working group led by FEMA to coordinate with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to identify ways to reduce duplication and streamline the Federal damage assessment process.

This is just a good government bill that will help improve disaster recovery efforts which were previously passed by the House in the 116th and 117th Congresses.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico (Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, H.R. 255 is just good government legislation that is going to help streamline disaster recovery efforts by improving the coordination efficiency of Federal agencies involved in disaster assistance.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 255, the Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act, introduced by Representatives Gonzalez- Colon, Peters, and Plaskett.

This legislation amends the Disaster Recovery Reform Act to help Federal agencies streamline and consolidate information collection and Preliminary Damage Assessments following disasters.

After a major disaster, there is no time to wait for bureaucracy. However, Federal recovery assistance following disasters is currently hampered by inefficient information collection and assessments conducted by multiple agencies.

This bill will remove information collection barriers that currently impede disaster aid. It creates a working group to identify duplicative assessments and propose their elimination.

Further, it would streamline Federal disaster recovery efforts by concluding that a single agency is sufficient to conduct damage assessments to account for the needs of disaster victims. The Federal Government can and should be doing this work smarter.

Mr. Speaker, I support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I am prepared to close. I inquire of my colleague if there are any remaining speakers on his side.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, this bipartisan bill passed the House on suspension in the 116th and 117th Congresses. It will help disaster survivors by taking a step toward streamlining the Federal Government's fragmented approach to disaster assistance.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.