July 24, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 125 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
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DISCLOSING AID SPENT TO ENSURE RELIEF ACT; Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 125
(House of Representatives - July 24, 2019)
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[Pages H7287-H7290] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] DISCLOSING AID SPENT TO ENSURE RELIEF ACT Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1984) to amend chapter 11 of title 31, United States Code, to require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to annually submit to Congress a report on all disaster-related assistance provided by the Federal Government. The Clerk read the title of the bill. [[Page H7288]] The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 1984 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Disclosing Aid Spent to Ensure Relief Act'' or the ``DISASTER Act''. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. Congress finds the following: (1) At a time of constrained budgets, it is fiscally prudent to understand the amount and the scope of the Federal Government's involvement in providing disaster-related assistance to communities in need. (2) The Federal Government does not provide a single, publicly available estimate of the amount it is spending on disaster-related assistance. (3) Because recovery is a long-term process, providing disaster-related assistance requires significant Federal resources to support a multi-agency, multi-year restoration of infrastructure and commerce in affected communities. (4) Understanding the expenditures of individual Federal agencies for disaster-related assistance will help better inform the congressional appropriations process, as well as presidential budget requests. (5) Knowledge about disaster-related expenses will illustrate opportunities for reducing these expenses through efforts to reduce vulnerabilities to future natural disasters. SEC. 3. PURPOSE. The purpose of this Act is to require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to annually submit to Congress a report on all disaster-related assistance provided by the Federal Government. SEC. 4. REPORTING OF DISASTER-RELATED ASSISTANCE. (a) In General.--Chapter 11 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section: ``Sec. 1127. Reporting of disaster-related assistance ``(a) In General.--On the same day that the President makes the annual budget submission to the Congress under section 1105(a) for a fiscal year, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall submit to Congress a report on Federal disaster-related assistance for the fiscal year ending in the calendar year immediately preceding the calendar year in which the annual budget submission is made. Disaster-related assistance encompasses Federal obligations related to disaster response, recovery, and mitigation efforts, as well as administrative costs associated with these activities, including spending by the following agencies and programs: ``(1) Department of Agriculture: ``(A) Agriculture Research Service. ``(B) Farm Service Agency. ``(C) Food and Nutrition Service. ``(D) Natural Resource Conservation Service. ``(E) Forest Service. ``(F) Rural Housing Service. ``(G) Rural Utilities Service. ``(2) Department of Commerce: ``(A) National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ``(B) Economic Development Administration Economic Adjustment Assistance. ``(3) Army Corps of Engineers of the Department of Defense (Civil). ``(4) Department of Defense (Military): ``(A) Military Personnel. ``(B) Operations and Maintenance. ``(C) Procurement. ``(D) Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation. ``(E) Military Construction (MILCON) and Family Housing. ``(F) Management Funds. ``(G) Other Department of Defense Programs. ``(5) Department of Education: ``(A) Elementary and Secondary Education. ``(B) Higher Education. ``(6) Department of Health and Human Services: ``(A) Administration for Children and Families. ``(B) Public Health and Medical Assistance. ``(C) Public Health Emergency Fund. ``(7) Department of Homeland Security: ``(A) Federal Emergency Management Agency: ``(i) Emergency Declarations. ``(ii) Fire Management Assistance Grants. ``(iii) Major Disaster Declarations. ``(iv) Administrative Assistance. ``(B) FEMA Missions Assignments by Federal Agency. ``(C) Community Disaster Loan Program. ``(8) Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): ``(A) Community Development Block Grants. ``(B) Rental Assistance/Section 8 Vouchers. ``(C) Supportive Housing. ``(D) Public Housing Repair. ``(E) Inspector General. ``(9) Department of the Interior: ``(A) Bureau of Indian Affairs. ``(B) United States Fish and Wildlife Service. ``(C) National Park Service. ``(D) Wildland Fire Management. ``(10) Department of Justice: ``(A) Legal Activities. ``(B) United States Marshals Service. ``(C) Federal Bureau of Investigation. ``(D) Drug Enforcement Administration. ``(E) Bureau of Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. ``(F) Federal Prison System (Bureau of Prisons). ``(G) Office of Justice Programs. ``(11) Department of Labor: ``(A) National Emergency Grants for Dislocation Events. ``(B) Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Dislocated Worker Program. ``(12) Department of Transportation: ``(A) Federal Highway Administration: Emergency Relief Program (ER). ``(B) Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). ``(C) Federal Transit Administration (FTA). ``(13) Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service. ``(14) Department of Veterans Affairs. ``(15) Corporation for National and Community Service. ``(16) Environmental Protection Agency: ``(A) Hurricane Emergency Response Authorities. ``(B) EPA Hurricane Response. ``(C) EPA Regular Appropriations. ``(17) The Federal Judiciary. ``(18) Disaster Assistance Program of the Small Business Administration. ``(19) Department of Energy: ``(A) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response. ``(B) Office of Petroleum Services. ``(20) General Services Administration. ``(21) Other authorities as appropriate. ``(b) Content.--The report shall detail the following: ``(1) Overall amount of disaster-related assistance obligations during the fiscal year. ``(2) Disaster-related assistance obligations by agency and account. ``(3) Disaster for which the spending was obligated. ``(4) Obligations by disaster. ``(5) Disaster-related assistance by disaster type. ``(6) Response and recovery spending. ``(7) Mitigation spending. ``(8) Spending in the form of loans. ``(9) Spending in the form of grants. ``(c) Availability of Report.--The report shall be made publicly available on the website of the Office of Management and Budget and should be searchable, sortable and downloadable.''. (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of chapters for chapter 11 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new item: ``1127. Reporting of disaster-related assistance.''. SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE. The reporting requirement under the amendment made by section 3(a) shall take effect with the budget submission of the President under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, for fiscal year 2022. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Graves) each will control 20 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oregon. General Leave Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. 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. 1984. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Oregon? There was no objection. Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1984, the Disclosing Aid Spent to Ensure Relief, or DISASTER Act, introduced by the gentleman from California (Mr. Peters). In 2018 alone, there were 14 natural disasters that each resulted in more than $1 billion in losses. Already in 2019, the President has granted over 50 major disaster emergency or fire management declarations under the authorities of the Stafford Act. While insurance partially covers the cost of disaster recovery, the Federal Government, along with State, local, Tribal, and territorial partners, is spending billions of dollars annually to respond to and recover from these events across more than three dozen departments and agencies. That results in the fact that there is no clear and consolidated information regarding Federal spending on disasters. The DISASTER Act would change that by requiring the Office of Management and Budget to annually compile and publicly release a report on disaster-related spending across the Federal Government. I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Peters) for introducing this bill so that we can obtain, in the future, this vital consolidated information and have it also be available to taxpayers of the United States. [[Page H7289]] Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support this commonsense measure. It will do more to shed light on how limited taxpayer resources are being spent. Doing so will help better inform how we prioritize policies and spending to drive down disaster-related expenditures in the future and more effectively provide relief. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this bill. I urge my colleagues to join me in support, and I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1984, the DISASTER Act, is a bipartisan piece of legislation that requires the Federal agencies across the government to report on how much they simply spend on disasters. I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Peters) and the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Meadows) for their work on this legislation. Mr. Speaker, you would think that we would know how much the Federal Government spends, actually spends, on disasters. We have estimates, but we simply don't know what the actual costs are across the Federal Government. This bill is going to help us get some real numbers. It is going to help us increase transparency for the taxpayer. It is going to help Congress make some much better-informed decisions. Mr. Speaker, I do support this legislation. I would encourage my colleagues to do the same, and I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Peters), the author of this excellent legislation. Mr. PETERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for yielding. Mr. Speaker, as we in California and the West prepare for more scorching wildfires, the Southeast is in the heart of hurricane season, and the Midwest is still drying out from historic flooding. Across the country, natural disasters have taken the lives of loved ones, destroyed livelihoods, and caused irreparable damage to communities and businesses. Disasters are becoming larger, more dangerous and frequent, and significantly more expensive. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, there have been more than 2,400 federally declared disasters since 2000, totaling hundreds of billions of dollars in relief aid. However, when the Federal Government helps communities recover from these disasters, it does not calculate one comprehensive number of how much we spend on disasters per year. Those funds could come from 29 different accounts across 11 different agencies, which exacerbates delays in disaster recovery and hinders future planning and future accountability. That is why I introduced the bipartisan Disclosing Aid Spent to Ensure Relief, or DISASTER Act with Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina. This transparency bill is common sense. It requires the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, to publish an annual total of disaster- related assistance categorized by disaster type, location, and purpose. With this and other smart reforms Congress is considering today, taxpayers will know where their dollars are going, and the Federal Government can be a better steward of those resources and will be better able to plan for the next disasters. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to pass this legislation today before the next big natural disaster hits. Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico (Miss Gonzalez-Colon). Miss GONZALEZ-COLON of Puerto Rico. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I want to thank Representative Peters and Ranking Member Meadows of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management for working on this critical legislation. As coming from one of those places that actually was impacted by a hurricane, I think this is one of the best ways to be accountable for the money that has been approved. I am a cosponsor of H.R. 1984, the DISASTER Act, which requires the Office of Management and Budget to submit an annual report to Congress on all disaster-related assistance provided by the Federal Government. The report must include all Federal obligations related to disaster response recovery, mitigation efforts, and administrative costs associated with these activities for specified agencies and programs. A lot has been said about how much money has been allocated to many jurisdictions across the different Federal agencies, so having this tool will help us understand how much in funds have been approved and where that money is going. To date, Puerto Rico has been appropriated $42 billion in disaster funding; $20.6 billion has been obligated; and only $13.6 billion has been outlaid or reached the island's needs. Having this information in a single report will help Congress and the public better understand the real cost of natural disasters and the benefits of investing in mitigation and adaptation efforts as well. This legislation will also provide transparency and accountability when it comes to disaster relief costs. That is the reason I am a proud cosponsor. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Peters and Ranking Member Meadows. Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers at this time, and I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, again, you would think that we would have a better idea of what we actually spend on disasters. We obviously don't. This legislation is going to provide the transparency. Mr. Speaker, I think it is a good piece of legislation. I urge my colleagues to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this excellent legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time. Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1984, the Disclosing Aid Spent to Ensure Relief Act'', or ``DISASTER Act'', which directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to submit to Congress a report on all disaster-related assistance provided by the Federal Government. Mr. Speaker, this legislation is not only a reasonable exercise of Congress' power of oversight but it is also fiscally prudent. To understand the scope of disaster-related spending and expenditures by the Federal Government, Congress must have a comprehensive understanding of the various multi-agency and multiyear efforts in helping disaster-stricken areas recover. Additionally, having estimates of these expenditures for individual Federal agencies will also help inform the congressional appropriations process as well as presidential budget requests. Mr. Speaker, knowledge about disaster-related expenses will also yield opportunities for reducing these expenses through mitigative and preventative efforts. Because transparency and open government are important, it is essential that Congress has a single, publicly available estimate of spending on disaster-related assistance. The American people deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent and how these dollars are being used to help them when disaster strikes. This report would also be crucial in helping educate the public about the numerous agencies involved in disaster relief efforts. While many would immediately recognize agencies such as FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, less conspicuous agencies such as NOAA, EPA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, play a crucial role in disaster relief. In short, H.R. 1984 will better inform both Congress and the public about what the Federal Government is doing to help those affected by disaster. I strongly urge all members to support this necessary and vital legislation. {time} 1400 The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1984. The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed. A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. [[Page H7290]] ____________________
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