Committee Approves Legislation of The Resident Commissioner for Emergency Management at The National Level

Press Release

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee today approved two bills by Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón that seek to improve emergency management programs for disaster victims. Yesterday at a press conference, the commissioner presented several measures to amend laws and procedures on disaster assistance in order to streamline work and make it more transparent. Today, the Committee gave way to HR 2016, of which she is the author, and HR 539, of which she is a co-author. Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act (HR2016)

HR2016 will help streamline the collection of information by federal agencies for preliminary damage assessments, reducing duplicative processes from multiple agencies, and ultimately making it easier to obtain disaster assistance for victims already experiencing hardships. from a hurricane, flood, wildfire, or other disaster.

Jenniffer González-Colón (R-PR), original author of the measure together with Democrat Scott Peters (D-CA), stated that "after hurricanes Irma and María, and the seismic activity on the island, we discovered that several federal agencies they would require the same information in their preliminary assessments. However, there was no process for sharing these evaluations more widely among the agencies themselves. HR2016 seeks to identify ways to streamline the disaster assessment process by eliminating the overlap of federal agencies. Congress must ensure that federal agencies have all the necessary tools to avoid conflicting or duplicative efforts while maximizing the use of technology to collect assessment information. This will not only save taxpayers money,

The measure was made with technical assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to ensure their collaboration in its implementation. This bill establishes a federal task force led by FEMA with representatives of various agencies associated with disaster relief, which, in collaboration with the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, would identify areas where provisions to carry out conflict assessments done to administer disaster assistance for individuals, households, and states.

It also directs the task force to determine whether emerging technologies, such as unmanned aircraft systems (drones), can be used to help speed up federal assessments; and recommend whether a single agency can collect the information necessary for claims assessment processing rather than each agency conducting its own information collection. Disaster Revictimization Prevention Act (HR539) HR 539 is bipartisan legislation that will prevent the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from withdrawing disaster assistance funds that it mistakenly awarded to victims who requested assistance in good faith. faith and used that money to help rebuild their lives.

The bill requires FEMA to waive the debt of disaster aid recipients in cases where the agency later determined that it awarded assistance in error but did not commit fraud.

Under current law, FEMA can return weeks, months, or even years later to seek reimbursement of funds it awarded to victims, even when the agency is at fault for the mistake and the funds were used properly in the wake of a disaster. . The bill also ensures that FEMA informs Congress about its efforts to minimize similar errors in the future.

The Republican leader of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Sam Graves (R-MO), lead author of HR 539, stated that "the Disaster Revictimization Prevention Act will ensure that disaster victims attempting to recover and rebuild their lives, homes and businesses are not revictimized due to a federal agency error. " Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), co-author of HR 539 said," No disaster victim should be subject to the government looting their disaster compensation and obstructing their recovery efforts. The Disaster Revictimization Prevention Act will ensure that the federal government does not take compensation from any disaster victim under the pretext of reimbursement. "

González-Colón (R-PR), also a co-author of HR 539 added that "as someone representing a district that has been affected by multiple natural disasters over the past four years, the people hope that FEMA can respond to their immediate needs to ensure their safety and security, and then support them with their long-term recovery. I am proud to be a co-author of HR 539, the Disaster Revictimization Prevention Act, to prevent FEMA from taking away disaster funding given to those affected by a natural disaster as they begin to rebuild their lives. "

Other projects approved today in the committee, presented by Republican members, include improvements to emergency management programs for disaster victims, will encourage early completion of airport capacity projects, improve aviation security information provided to pilots and will reauthorize the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Program. (Expedited Airport Infrastructure Delivery Act 2021- HR468; Notice to Airman Improvement Act 2021-HR1262; Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Program Reauthorization -HR1921).

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