Small Project Efficient and Effective Disaster Recovery Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5641, the SPEED Recovery Act, is a bipartisan bill that cuts red tape and helps expedite disaster recovery efforts, especially in small and rural areas. This legislation updates what the Federal Emergency Management Agency considers a small project.

The bill already passed the House in April, as has been said, and today, it returns with a reasonable amendment from the Senate and adds a report by the inspector general of Homeland Security to help ensure that there is no fraud, waste, and abuse.

Increasing the small project threshold allows communities to recover faster and allows FEMA to focus more of their time and resources on larger, more complex projects that represent 90 percent of the disaster costs.

I have heard from communities in my district about paperwork burdens and increasing denials over technicalities, and I hope the commonsense adjustments of this bill will improve this process.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this legislation.

Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding.

Today, I rise again in support of H.R. 5641, the SPEED Recovery Act, which is bipartisan legislation introduced by Ranking Member Graves that passed the House in April.

This bill cannot be timelier as Puerto Rico is once again dealing with the effects of yet another major disaster, Hurricane Fiona, while also communities in Florida are facing Hurricane Ian as we speak.

We do have a lot of experience in those small projects that are never done because of the red tape or the long procedures that need to be dealt with between municipalities and FEMA.

Too often, cities and municipalities face the burden of rising costs of material and labor, which means that the cost estimate for relatively simple projects, such as street repairs, now surpasses the threshold for what is defined as a small project.

Today, $123,000 hardly covers the most trivial work, and we can talk about that. I mean, we still have a lot of those small projects since Hurricane Maria that are not being done, and now, many of those projects were hit by Hurricane Fiona. Although the money is there, the process is so big that even the initial amount won't cover those repairs.

We have had cases where there may have been resources to start and finish promptly, but because of the price tag, we are forced to go through a more complicated process with FEMA, which can take years, years in which the people wonder when they will see the work.

When a community does not see even small things taken care of, that weakens the social fabric and promotes displacement.

We cannot afford to keep going through that again. We have a responsibility to make the Federal Government more efficient, particularly in times of need.

By increasing the threshold for eligibility for small projects, including adjustments for inflation, this bill will simplify that process, reducing administrative burdens, resulting in faster start of work and allowing more recovery projects to move forward.

Mr. Speaker, I support this commonsense bipartisan legislation, and I urge all Members to support the Senate amendments and send them to the President's desk. Across the Nation, our communities will need it.

The amendments to H.R. 5641, the SPEED Recovery Act, is reasonable and will help to strengthen accountability.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Senators Portman and Peters, who are the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Without their leadership in the Senate to push forward this measure, we would not be here today.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who also helped by being engaged in this particular issue.

Finally, I thank our great staff on both sides to get this bill to the finish line, especially my subcommittee staff director, Johanna Hardy and Maddy McCaslin.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this important legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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