Schatz: ‘Reforming Disaster Recovery Act’ included in bipartisan housing package

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs unanimously voted Tuesday to advance a bipartisan housing package that included the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act. The provision, authored by US Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawai‘i and Susan Collins of Maine, would help communities recover from major disasters.

“Right now, each time a disaster happens, communities in crisis are forced to wait for Congress to pass a disaster funding bill before Housing and Urban Development can help. Our provision changes the law so they no longer have to wait. As soon as a disaster strikes, HUD will be able to help communities begin the process of recovery,” Schatz said.

“With natural disasters increasing in frequency and intensity — as we saw earlier this month with the devastating floods in Texas — it is critical that states have the necessary resources to respond in order to protect public safety, property, and our economy,” Collins said. “Our bipartisan legislation would allow communities to immediately focus on helping families and local businesses recover instead of waiting on the federal bureaucracy in the wake of a natural disaster.”

The Schatz-Collins measure addresses long-standing recommendations from the HUD Office of the Inspector General and Government Accountability Office to establish a permanent and predictable funding process. The bill accelerates assistance to disaster-impacted communities by:

• Creating a disaster recovery fund to allow HUD to predictably assist communities.
• Authorizing HUD to issue regulations to codify program requirements and reduce unnecessary red tape, delays, and unpredictability that stems from the current process.
• Supporting resilience as a part of – rather than separate from – disaster recovery.
• Authorizing “quick release” funds to support grantee capacity right after an event.
• Improving federal coordination by establishing an office at HUD devoted to disaster recovery and resilience.
• Reducing unnecessary administrative burdens and interagency requirement conflicts.