II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. 1686
To establish a community disaster assistance fund for housing and community development and to authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Devel- opment to provide, from the fund, assistance through a community devel- opment block grant disaster recovery program, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MAY 18, 2023
Mr. S CHATZ (for himself, Ms. C OLLINS, Mrs. M URRAY, Mr. W ICKER, Mr.
WYDEN, Mr. C ASSIDY, Mr. V AN HOLLEN, Mr. T ILLIS, Mr. T ESTER, Mrs.
HYDE-SMITH, Mr. Y OUNG, Mr. L UJA´N, Mr. B OOKER, and Mr. P ADILLA) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
A BILL
To establish a community disaster assistance fund for hous- ing and community development and to authorize the
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to provide,
from the fund, assistance through a community develop-
ment block grant disaster recovery program, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reforming Disaster 4
Recovery Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
Congress finds that— 2
(1) following a major disaster declared by the 3
President under section 401 of the Robert T. Staf-4
ford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 5
(42 U.S.C. 5170), the subset of communities that 6
are most impacted and distressed as a result of the 7
disaster face critical social, economic, and environ-8
mental obstacles to recovery, including insufficient 9
public and private resources to address disaster-re-10
lated housing and community development needs for 11
lower income households and distressed commu-12
nities; 13
(2) unmet disaster recovery needs, including 14
housing assistance needs, can be especially wide-15
spread among persons with extremely low-, low-, and 16
moderate-incomes; 17
(3) economic, social, and housing hardships 18
that affect communities before disasters are exacer-19
bated during crises and can delay and complicate 20
long-term recovery, especially after catastrophic 21
major disasters; 22
(4) States, units of local government, and In-23
dian Tribes within the most impacted and distressed 24
areas resulting from major disasters benefit from 25
flexibility to design programs that meet local needs, 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Jun 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1686.IS S1686kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1686 IS
but face inadequate financial, technical, and staffing 1 capacity to plan and carry out sustained recovery, 2
restoration, and mitigation activities; 3
(5) the speed and effectiveness considerations of 4
long-term recovery from catastrophic major disasters 5
is improved by predictable investments that support 6
disaster relief, long-term recovery, restoration of 7
housing and infrastructure, and economic revitaliza-8
tion, primarily for the benefit of low- and moderate- 9 income persons; 10
(6) undertaking activities that mitigate the ef-11
fects of future natural disasters and extreme weath-12
er and increase the stock of affordable housing, in-13
cluding affordable rental housing, as part of long- 14
term recovery can significantly reduce future fiscal 15 and social costs, especially within high-risk areas, 16 and can help to address outstanding housing and 17
community development needs by creating jobs and 18
providing other economic and social benefits within 19
communities that further promote recovery and resil-20
ience; and 21
(7) the general welfare and security of the 22
United States and the health and living standards of 23 its people require targeted resources to support 24
State and local governments in carrying out their re-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Jun 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1686.IS S1686kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1686 IS
sponsibilities in disaster recovery and mitigation 1
through interim and long-term housing and commu-2
nity development activities that primarily benefit 3
low- and moderate-income persons. 4
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 5
In this Act: 6
(1) D EPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ 7
means the Department of Housing and Urban De-8
velopment. 9
(2) F UND.—The term ‘‘Fund’’ means the 10
Long-Term Disaster Recovery Fund established 11
under section 5. 12
(3) S ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 13
the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. 14
SEC. 4. DUTIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND 15
URBAN DEVELOPMENT. 16
(a) IN GENERAL.—The offices and officers of the De-17
partment shall be responsible for— 18
(1) leading and coordinating the disaster-re-19
lated responsibilities of the Department under the 20
National Response Framework, the National Dis-21
aster Recovery Framework, and the National Mitiga-22
tion Framework; 23
(2) coordinating and administering programs, 24
policies, and activities of the Department related to 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Jun 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1686.IS S1686kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1686 IS
disaster relief, long-term recovery, resiliency, and 1
mitigation, including disaster recovery assistance 2
under title I of the Housing and Community Devel-3
opment Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.); 4
(3) supporting disaster-impacted communities 5
as those communities specifically assess, plan for, 6
and address the housing stock and housing needs in 7
the transition from emergency shelters and interim 8
housing to permanent housing of those displaced, es-9
pecially among vulnerable populations and extremely 10
low-, low-, and moderate-income households; 11
(4) collaborating with the Federal Emergency 12
Management Agency and the Small Business Ad-13
ministration and across the Department to align dis-14
aster-related regulations and policies, including in-15 corporation of consensus-based codes and standards 16
and insurance purchase requirements, and ensuring 17
coordination and reducing duplication among other 18
Federal disaster recovery programs; 19
(5) promoting best practices in mitigation and 20
land use planning, including consideration of tradi-21
tional, natural, and nature-based infrastructure al-22
ternatives; 23
(6) coordinating technical assistance, including 24
mitigation, resiliency, and recovery training and in-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Jun 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1686.IS S1686kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1686 IS
formation on all relevant legal and regulatory re-1
quirements, to entities that receive disaster recovery 2 assistance under title I of the Housing and Commu-3
nity Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et 4
seq.) that demonstrate capacity constraints; and 5
(7) supporting State, Tribal, and local govern-6
ments in developing, coordinating, and maintaining 7
their capacity for disaster resilience and recovery 8
and developing pre-disaster recovery and hazard 9
mitigation plans, in coordination with the Federal 10
Emergency Management Agency and other Federal 11
agencies. 12
(b) E STABLISHMENT OF THE OFFICE OF DISASTER 13
MANAGEMENT AND RESILIENCY.—Section 4 of the De-14
partment of Housing and Urban Development Act (42 15
U.S.C. 3533) is amended by adding at the end the fol-16 lowing: 17
‘‘(i) O FFICE OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND RE-18
SILIENCY.— 19
‘‘(1) E STABLISHMENT.—There is established, 20
in the Office of the Secretary, the Office of Disaster 21 Management and Resiliency. 22
‘‘(2) D UTIES.—The Office of Disaster Manage-23
ment and Resiliency shall— 24
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‘‘(A) be responsible for oversight and co-1
ordination of all departmental disaster pre-2
paredness and response responsibilities; and 3
‘‘(B) coordinate with the Federal Emer-4
gency Management Agency, the Small Business 5
Administration, and the Office of Community 6
Planning and Development and other offices of 7
the Department in supporting recovery and re-8
silience activities to provide a comprehensive 9
approach in working with communities.’’. 10
SEC. 5. LONG-TERM DISASTER RECOVERY FUND. 11
(a) E STABLISHMENT.—There is established in the 12
Treasury of the United States an account to be known 13 as the Long-Term Disaster Recovery Fund. 14
(b) DEPOSITS, TRANSFERS, AND CREDIT.— 15
(1) I N GENERAL .—The Fund shall consist of 16
amounts appropriated, transferred, and credited to 17
the Fund. 18
(2) T RANSFERS.—The following may be trans-19
ferred to the Fund: 20
(A) Amounts made available through sec-21
tion 106(c)(4) of the Housing and Community 22
Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 23
5306(c)(4)) as a result of actions taken under 24
section 104(e), 111, or 123(j) of such Act. 25
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(B) Any unobligated balances available 1
until expended remaining or subsequently re-2
captured from amounts appropriated for any 3
disaster and related purposes under the heading 4
‘‘Community Development Fund’’ in any Act 5
prior to the establishment of the Fund. 6
(3) U SE OF TRANSFERRED AMOUNTS .— 7
Amounts transferred to the Fund shall be used for 8
the eligible uses described in subsection (c). 9
(c) ELIGIBLE USES OF FUND.— 10
(1) I N GENERAL .—Amounts in the Fund shall 11
be available— 12
(A) to provide assistance in the form of 13
grants under section 123 of the Housing and 14
Community Development Act of 1974, as added 15
by section 6; and 16
(B) for activities of the Department that 17
support the provision of such assistance, includ-18
ing necessary salaries and expenses, informa-19
tion technology, capacity building and technical 20
assistance (including assistance related to pre- 21
disaster planning), and readiness and other pre- 22
disaster planning activities that are not readily 23
attributable to a single major disaster. 24
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(2) S ET ASIDE .—Of each amount appropriated 1
for or transferred to the Fund, 2 percent shall be 2
made available for activities described in paragraph 3
(1)(B), which shall be in addition to other amounts 4
made available for those activities. 5
(3) T RANSFER OF FUNDS .—Amounts made 6
available for use in accordance with paragraph (2)— 7
(A) may be transferred to the account 8
under the heading for ‘‘Program Offices—Com-9
munity Planning and Development’’, or any 10
successor account, for the Department to carry 11
out activities described in paragraph (1)(B); 12
and 13
(B) may be used for the activities de-14
scribed in paragraph (1)(B) and for the admin-15
istrative costs of administering any funds ap-16
propriated to the Department under the head-17
ing ‘‘Community Planning and Development— 18
Community Development Fund’’ for any major 19
disaster declared under section 401 of the Rob-20
ert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 21
Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170) in any Act be-22
fore the establishment of the Fund. 23
(d) I NTERCHANGEABILITY OF PRIOR ADMINISTRA-24
TIVE AMOUNTS.—Any amounts appropriated in any Act 25
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prior to the establishment of the Fund and transferred 1 to the account under the heading ‘‘Program Offices Sala-2 ries and Expenses—Community Planning and Develop-3
ment’’, or any predecessor account, for the Department 4 for the costs of administering funds appropriated to the 5 Department under the heading ‘‘Community Planning and 6 Development—Community Development Fund’’ for any 7
major disaster declared under section 401 of the Robert 8 T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 9 (42 U.S.C. 5170) shall be available for the costs of admin-10 istering any such funds provided by any prior or future 11 Act, notwithstanding the purposes for which those 12
amounts were appropriated and in addition to any amount 13 provided for the same purposes in other appropriations 14 Acts. 15
(e) A VAILABILITY OF AMOUNTS.—Amounts appro-16
priated, transferred, and credited to the Fund shall re-17 main available until expended. 18
(f) F ORMULA ALLOCATION.—Use of amounts in the 19
Fund for grants shall be made by formula allocation in 20 accordance with the requirements of section 123(a) of the 21 Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, as 22
added by section 6. 23
(g) A UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 24
are authorized to be appropriated to the Fund such sums 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Jun 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1686.IS S1686kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •S 1686 IS
as may be necessary to respond to current or future major 1 disasters declared under section 401 of the Robert T. 2 Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 3 (42 U.S.C. 5179) for grants under section 123 of the 4
Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, as 5
added by section 6. 6
SEC. 6. ESTABLISHMENT OF CDBG DISASTER RECOVERY 7
PROGRAM. 8
Title I of the Housing and Community Development 9
Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.) is amended— 10
(1) in section 102(a) (42 U.S.C. 5302(a))— 11
(A) in paragraph (20)— 12
(i) by redesignating subparagraph (B) 13
as subparagraph (C); 14
(ii) in subparagraph (C), as so redes-15
ignated, by inserting ‘‘or (B)’’ after ‘‘sub-16
paragraph (A)’’; and 17
(iii) by inserting after subparagraph 18
(A) the following: 19
‘‘(B) The term ‘persons of extremely low in-20
come’ means families and individuals whose income 21
levels do not exceed household income levels deter-22
mined by the Secretary under section 3(b)(2) of the 23
United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 24
1437a(b)(2)(C)), except that the Secretary may pro-25
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vide alternative definitions for the Commonwealth of 1
Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the 2
Northern Mariana Islands, the United States Virgin 3
Islands, and American Samoa.’’; and 4
(B) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(25) The term ‘major disaster’ has the mean-6
ing given the term in section 102 of the Robert T. 7
Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance 8
Act (42 U.S.C. 5122).’’; 9
(2) in section 106(c)(4) (42 U.S.C. 10
5306(c)(4))— 11
(A) in subparagraph (A)— 12
(i) by striking ‘‘declared by the Presi-13
dent under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 14
Relief and Emergency Assistance Act’’; 15
(ii) inserting ‘‘States for use in non-16
entitlement areas and to’’ before ‘‘metro-17
politan cities’’; and 18
(iii) inserting ‘‘major’’ after ‘‘affected 19
by the’’; 20
(B) in subparagraph (C)— 21
(i) by striking ‘‘metropolitan city or’’ 22
and inserting ‘‘State, metropolitan city, 23
or’’; 24
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(ii) by striking ‘‘city or county’’ and 1
inserting ‘‘State, city, or county’’; and 2
(iii) by inserting ‘‘major’’ before ‘‘dis-3
aster’’; 4
(C) in subparagraph (D), by striking ‘‘met-5
ropolitan cities and’’ and inserting ‘‘States, 6
metropolitan cities, and’’; 7
(D) in subparagraph (F)— 8
(i) by striking ‘‘metropolitan city or’’ 9
and inserting ‘‘State, metropolitan city, 10
or’’; and 11
(ii) by inserting ‘‘major’’ before ‘‘dis-12
aster’’; and 13
(E) in subparagraph (G), by striking ‘‘met-14
ropolitan city or’’ and inserting ‘‘State, metro-15
politan city, or’’; 16
(3) in section 122 (42 U.S.C. 5321), by striking 17
‘‘disaster under title IV of the Robert T. Stafford 18
Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act’’ and 19
inserting ‘‘major disaster’’; and 20
(4) by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘SEC. 123. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT DIS-22
ASTER RECOVERY PROGRAM. 23
‘‘(a) A UTHORIZATION, F ORMULA, AND ALLOCA-24
TION.— 25
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‘‘(1) A UTHORIZATION.—The Secretary is au-1
thorized to make community development block 2
grant disaster recovery grants from the Long-Term 3
Disaster Recovery Fund established under section 5 4
of the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act (hereinafter 5
referred to as the ‘Fund’) for necessary expenses for 6 activities authorized under subsection (f)(1) related 7 to disaster relief, long-term recovery, restoration of 8 housing and infrastructure, economic revitalization, 9
and mitigation in the most impacted and distressed 10
areas resulting from a catastrophic major disaster. 11
‘‘(2) GRANT AWARDS .—Grants shall be awarded 12
under this section to States, units of general local 13 government, and Indian tribes based on capacity and 14
the concentration of damage, as determined by the 15
Secretary, to support the efficient and effective ad-16 ministration of funds. 17
‘‘(3) S ECTION 106 ALLOCATIONS .—Grants 18
under this section shall not be considered relevant to 19 the formula allocations made pursuant to section 20
106. 21
‘‘(4) FEDERAL REGISTER NOTICE .— 22
‘‘(A) I N GENERAL .—Not later than 30 23
days after the date of enactment of this section, 24
the Secretary shall issue a notice in the Federal 25
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Register containing the latest formula allocation 1
methodologies used to determine the total esti-2
mate of unmet needs related to housing, eco-3
nomic revitalization, and infrastructure in the 4
most impacted and distressed areas resulting 5
from a catastrophic major disaster. 6
‘‘(B) P UBLIC COMMENT .—If the Secretary 7
has not already requested public comment on 8
the formula described in the notice required by 9
subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall solicit 10
public comments on— 11
‘‘(i) the methodologies described in 12
subparagraph (A) and seek alternative 13
methods for formula allocation within a 14
similar total amount of funding; 15
‘‘(ii) the impact of formula methodolo-16
gies on rural areas and Tribal areas; 17
‘‘(iii) adjustments to improve tar-18
geting to the most serious needs; 19
‘‘(iv) objective criteria for grantee ca-20
pacity and concentration of damage to in-21
form grantee determinations and minimum 22
allocation thresholds; and 23
‘‘(v) research and data to inform an 24
additional amount to be provided for miti-25
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gation depending on type of disaster, which 1
shall be not more than 30 percent of the 2
total estimate of unmet needs. 3
‘‘(5) REGULATIONS.— 4
‘‘(A) I N GENERAL .—The Secretary shall, 5
by regulation, establish a formula to allocate as-6
sistance from the Fund to the most impacted 7
and distressed areas resulting from a cata-8
strophic major disaster. 9
‘‘(B) FORMULA REQUIREMENTS .—The for-10
mula established under subparagraph (A) 11
shall— 12
‘‘(i) set forth criteria to determine 13
that a major disaster is catastrophic, which 14
criteria shall consider the presence of a 15
high concentration of damaged housing or 16
businesses that individual, State, Tribal, 17
and local resources could not reasonably be 18
expected to address without additional 19
Federal assistance or other nationally en-20
compassing data that the Secretary deter-21
mines are adequate to assess relative im-22
pact and distress across geographic areas; 23
‘‘(ii) include a methodology for identi-24
fying most impacted and distressed areas, 25
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which shall consider unmet serious needs 1
related to housing, economic revitalization, 2
and infrastructure; 3
‘‘(iii) include an allocation calculation 4
that considers the unmet serious needs re-5
sulting from the catastrophic major dis-6
aster and an additional amount up to 30 7
percent for activities to reduce risks of loss 8
resulting from other natural disasters in 9
the most impacted and distressed area, pri-10
marily for the benefit of low- and mod-11
erate-income persons, with particular focus 12
on activities that reduce repetitive loss of 13
property and critical infrastructure; and 14
‘‘(iv) establish objective criteria for 15
periodic review and updates to the formula 16
to reflect changes in available science and 17
data. 18
‘‘(C) M INIMUM ALLOCATION THRESH -19
OLD.—The Secretary shall, by regulation, es-20
tablish a minimum allocation threshold. 21
‘‘(D) I NTERIM ALLOCATION .—Until such 22
time that the Secretary issues final regulations 23
under this paragraph, the Secretary shall— 24
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‘‘(i) allocate assistance from the Fund 1
using the formula allocation methodology 2
published in accordance with paragraph 3
(4); and 4
‘‘(ii) include an additional amount for 5
mitigation equal to 15 percent of the total 6
estimate of unmet need. 7
‘‘(6) ALLOCATION OF FUNDS .— 8
‘‘(A) I N GENERAL .—The Secretary shall— 9
‘‘(i) except as provided in clause (ii), 10
not later than 90 days after the President 11
declares a major disaster, use best avail-12
able data to determine whether the major 13
disaster is catastrophic and qualifies for 14
assistance under the formula described in 15
paragraph (4) or (5), unless data is insuf-16
ficient to make this determination; and 17
‘‘(ii) if the best available data is insuf-18
ficient to make the determination required 19
under clause (i) within the 90-day period 20
described in that clause, the Secretary 21
shall determine whether the major disaster 22
qualifies when sufficient data becomes 23
available, but in no case shall the Sec-24
retary make the determination later than 25
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120 days after the declaration of the major 1
disaster. 2
‘‘(B) A NNOUNCEMENT OF ALLOCATION .— 3
If amounts are available in the Fund at the 4
time the Secretary determines that the major 5
disaster is catastrophic and qualifies for assist-6
ance under the formula described in paragraph 7
(4) or (5), the Secretary shall immediately an-8
nounce an allocation for a grant under this sec-9
tion. 10
‘‘(C) A DDITIONAL AMOUNTS .—If addi-11
tional amounts are appropriated to the Fund 12
after amounts are allocated under subpara-13
graph (B), the Secretary shall announce an al-14
location or additional allocation (if a prior allo-15
cation under subparagraph (B) was less than 16
the formula calculation) within 15 days of any 17
such appropriation. 18
‘‘(7) PRELIMINARY FUNDING .— 19
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL .—To speed recovery, the 20
Secretary is authorized to allocate and award 21
preliminary grants from the Fund before mak-22
ing a determination under paragraph (6)(A) if 23
the Secretary projects, based on a preliminary 24
assessment of impact and distress, that a major 25
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disaster is catastrophic and would likely qualify 1
for funding under the formula described in 2
paragraph (4) or (5). 3
‘‘(B) AMOUNT.— 4
‘‘(i) M AXIMUM.—The Secretary may 5
award preliminary funding under subpara-6
graph (A) in an amount that is not more 7
than $5,000,000. 8
‘‘(ii) S LIDING SCALE .—The Secretary 9
shall, by regulation, establish a sliding 10
scale for preliminary funding awarded 11
under subparagraph (A) based on the size 12
of the preliminary assessment of impact 13
and distress. 14
‘‘(C) U SE OF FUNDS .—The uses of pre-15
liminary funding awarded under subparagraph 16
(A) shall be limited to eligible activities that— 17
‘‘(i) in the determination of the Sec-18
retary, will support faster recovery, im-19
prove the ability of the grantee to assess 20
unmet recovery needs, plan for the preven-21
tion of improper payments, and reduce 22
fraud, waste, and abuse; and 23
‘‘(ii) may include evaluating the in-24
terim housing, permanent housing, and 25
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supportive service needs of the disaster im-1
pacted community, with special attention 2
to vulnerable populations, such as homeless 3
and low- to moderate-income households, 4
to inform the grantee action plan required 5
under subsection (c). 6
‘‘(D) C ONSIDERATION OF FUNDING .—Pre-7
liminary funding awarded under subparagraph 8
(A)— 9
‘‘(i) is not subject to the certification 10
requirements of subsection (h)(1); and 11
‘‘(ii) shall not be considered when cal-12
culating the amount of the grant used for 13
administrative costs, technical assistance, 14
and planning activities that are subject to 15
the requirements under subsection (f)(2). 16
‘‘(E) W AIVER.—To expedite the use of 17
preliminary funding for activities described in 18
this paragraph, the Secretary may waive or 19
specify alternative requirements to the require-20
ments of this section in accordance with sub-21
section (i). 22
‘‘(F) AMENDED AWARD .— 23
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL .—An award for pre-24
liminary funding under subparagraph (A) 25
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may be amended to add any subsequent 1
amount awarded because of a determina-2
tion by the Secretary that a major disaster 3
is catastrophic and qualifies for assistance 4
under the formula. 5
‘‘(ii) A PPLICABILITY.—Notwith-6
standing subparagraph (D), amounts pro-7
vided by an amendment under clause (i) 8
are subject to the requirements under sub-9
sections (f)(1) and (h)(1) and other re-10
quirements on grant funds under this sec-11
tion. 12
‘‘(G) T ECHNICAL ASSISTANCE .—Concur-13
rent with the allocation of any preliminary 14
funding awarded under this paragraph, the Sec-15
retary shall assign or provide technical assist-16
ance to the recipient of the grant. 17
‘‘(b) INTERCHANGEABILITY.— 18
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL .—The Secretary is authorized 19
to approve the use of grants under this section to be 20 used interchangeably and without limitation for the 21
same activities in the most impacted and distressed 22
areas resulting from a declaration of another cata-23
strophic major disaster that qualifies for assistance 24 under the formula established under paragraph (4) 25
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or (5) of subsection (a) or a major disaster for 1
which the Secretary allocated funds made available 2
under the heading ‘Community Development Fund’ 3
in any Act prior to the establishment of the Fund. 4
‘‘(2) R EQUIREMENTS.—The Secretary shall es-5
tablish requirements to expedite the use of grants 6
under this section for the purpose described in para-7
graph (1). 8
‘‘(3) E MERGENCY DESIGNATION .—Amounts 9
repurposed pursuant to this subsection that were 10
previously designated by Congress as an emergency 11
requirement pursuant to the Balanced Budget and 12
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 or a concur-13
rent resolution on the budget are designated by Con-14
gress as an emergency requirement pursuant to sec-15
tion 4001(a)(1) of S. Con. Res. 14 (117th Congress) 16
and legislation establishing fiscal year 2024 budget 17 enforcement in the House of Representatives. 18
‘‘(c) GRANTEE PLANS.— 19
‘‘(1) R EQUIREMENT.—Not later than 90 days 20
after the date on which the Secretary announces a 21
grant allocation under this section, unless an exten-22 sion is granted by the Secretary, the grantee shall 23
submit to the Secretary a plan for approval describ-24
ing— 25
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‘‘(A) the activities the grantee will carry 1
out with the grant under this section; 2
‘‘(B) the criteria of the grantee for award-3
ing assistance and selecting activities; 4
‘‘(C) how the use of the grant under this 5
section will address disaster relief, long-term re-6
covery, restoration of housing and infrastruc-7
ture, economic revitalization, and mitigation in 8
the most impacted and distressed areas; 9
‘‘(D) how the use of the grant funds for 10
mitigation is consistent with hazard mitigation 11
plans submitted to the Federal Emergency 12
Management Agency under section 322 of the 13
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-14
gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5165); 15
‘‘(E) the estimated amount proposed to be 16
used for activities that will benefit persons of 17
low and moderate income; 18
‘‘(F) how the use of grant funds will repair 19
and replace existing housing stock for vulner-20
able populations, including low- to moderate-in-21
come households; 22
‘‘(G) how the grantee will address the pri-23
orities described in paragraph (5); 24
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‘‘(H) how uses of funds are proportional to 1
unmet needs, as required under paragraph (6); 2
‘‘(I) for State grantees that plan to dis-3
tribute grant amounts to units of general local 4
government, a description of the method of dis-5
tribution; and 6
‘‘(J) such other information as may be de-7
termined by the Secretary in regulation. 8
‘‘(2) P UBLIC CONSULTATION .—To permit pub-9
lic examination and appraisal of the plan described 10
in paragraph (1), to enhance the public account-11
ability of grantee, and to facilitate coordination of 12 activities with different levels of government, when 13 developing the plan or substantial amendments pro-14
posed to the plan required under paragraph (1), a 15
grantee shall— 16
‘‘(A) publish the plan before adoption; 17
‘‘(B) provide citizens, affected units of 18
general local government, and other interested 19
parties with reasonable notice of, and oppor-20
tunity to comment on, the plan, with a public 21
comment period of not less than 14 days; 22
‘‘(C) consider comments received before 23
submission to the Secretary; 24
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‘‘(D) follow a citizen participation plan for 1
disaster assistance adopted by the grantee that, 2
at a minimum, provides for participation of 3
residents of the most impacted and distressed 4
area affected by the major disaster that re-5
sulted in the grant under this section and other 6
considerations established by the Secretary; and 7
‘‘(E) undertake any consultation with in-8
terested parties as may be determined by the 9
Secretary in regulation. 10
‘‘(3) APPROVAL.—The Secretary shall— 11
‘‘(A) by regulation, specify criteria for the 12
approval, partial approval, or disapproval of a 13
plan submitted under paragraph (1), including 14
approval of substantial amendments to the 15
plan; 16
‘‘(B) review a plan submitted under para-17
graph (1) upon receipt of the plan; 18
‘‘(C) allow a grantee to revise and resub-19
mit a plan or substantial amendment to a plan 20
under paragraph (1) that the Secretary dis-21
approves; 22
‘‘(D) by regulation, specify criteria for 23
when the grantee shall be required to provide 24
the required revisions to a disapproved plan or 25
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substantial amendment under paragraph (1) for 1
public comment prior to resubmission of the 2
plan or substantial amendment to the Sec-3
retary; and 4
‘‘(E) approve, partially approve, or dis-5
approve a plan or substantial amendment under 6
paragraph (1) not later than 60 days after the 7
date on which the plan or substantial amend-8
ment is received by the Secretary. 9
‘‘(4) L OW- AND MODERATE -INCOME OVERALL 10
BENEFIT.— 11
‘‘(A) U SE OF FUNDS .—Not less than 70 12
percent of a grant made under this section shall 13
be used for activities that benefit persons of low 14
and moderate income unless the Secretary— 15
‘‘(i) specifically finds that— 16
‘‘(I) there is compelling need to 17
reduce the percentage for the grant; 18
and 19
‘‘(II) the housing needs of low- 20
and moderate-income persons have 21
been addressed; and 22
‘‘(ii) issues a waiver and alternative 23
requirement specific to the grant pursuant 24
to subsection (i) to lower the percentage. 25
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‘‘(B) R EGULATIONS.—The Secretary shall, 1
by regulation, establish protocols consistent 2
with the findings of section 2 of the Reforming 3
Disaster Recovery Act to prioritize the use of 4
funds by a grantee under this section to meet 5
the needs of low- and moderate-income persons 6
and businesses serving primarily persons of low 7
and moderate income. 8
‘‘(5) P RIORITIZATION.—The grantee shall 9
prioritize activities that— 10
‘‘(A) assist persons with extremely low-, 11
low-, and moderate-incomes and other vulner-12
able populations to better recover from and 13
withstand future disasters, emphasizing those 14
with the most severe needs; 15
‘‘(B) address affordable housing, including 16
affordable rental housing, needs arising from a 17
disaster, or those needs present prior to a dis-18
aster; 19
‘‘(C) prolong the life of housing and infra-20
structure; 21
‘‘(D) use cost-effective means of preventing 22
harm to people and property and incorporate 23
protective features, redundancies, and energy 24
savings; and 25
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‘‘(E) other measures that will assure the 1
continuation of critical services during future 2
disasters. 3
‘‘(6) PROPORTIONAL ALLOCATION .— 4
‘‘(A) I N GENERAL .—A grantee under this 5
section shall allocate grant funds proportional 6
to unmet needs between housing activities, eco-7
nomic revitalization, and infrastructure, unless 8
the Secretary— 9
‘‘(i) specifically finds that— 10
‘‘(I) there is a compelling need 11
for a disproportional allocation among 12
those unmet needs; and 13
‘‘(II) the disproportional alloca-14
tion described in subclause (I) is not 15
inconsistent with the requirements 16
under paragraph (4); and 17
‘‘(ii) issues a waiver and alternative 18
requirement pursuant to subsection (i) to 19
allow for the disproportional allocation de-20
scribed in clause (i)(I). 21
‘‘(B) H OUSING ACTIVITIES .—With respect 22
to housing activities described in subparagraph 23
(A)(i), grantees should address proportional 24
needs between homeowners and renters, includ-25
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ing low-income households in public housing 1
and Federally subsidized housing. 2
‘‘(7) DISASTER RISK MITIGATION .— 3
‘‘(A) D EFINITION.—In this paragraph, the 4
term ‘hazard-prone areas’— 5
‘‘(i) means areas identified by the 6
Secretary, in consultation with the Admin-7
istrator of the Federal Emergency Man-8
agement Agency, at risk from natural haz-9
ards that threaten property damage or 10
health, safety, and welfare, such as floods, 11
wildfires (including Wildland-Urban Inter-12
face areas), earthquakes, lava inundation, 13
tornados, and high winds; and 14
‘‘(ii) includes areas having special 15
flood hazards as identified under the Flood 16
Disaster Protection Act of 1973 (42 17
U.S.C. 4002 et seq.) or the National Flood 18
Insurance Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 4001 et 19
seq.). 20
‘‘(B) H AZARD-PRONE AREAS .—The Sec-21
retary, in consultation with the Administrator 22
of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 23
shall establish minimum construction standards, 24
insurance purchase requirements, and other re-25
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quirements for the use of grant funds in haz-1
ard-prone areas. 2
‘‘(C) SPECIAL FLOOD HAZARDS .— 3
‘‘(i) I N GENERAL .—For the areas de-4
scribed in subparagraph (A)(ii), the insur-5
ance purchase requirements established 6
under subparagraph (B) shall meet or ex-7
ceed the requirements under section 102(a) 8
of the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 9
1973 (42 U.S.C. 4012a(a)). 10
‘‘(ii) T REATMENT AS FINANCIAL AS -11
SISTANCE.—All grants under this section 12
shall be treated as financial assistance for 13
purposes of section 3(a)(3) of the Flood 14
Disaster Protection Act of 1973 (42 15
U.S.C. 4003(a)(3)). 16
‘‘(D) C ONSIDERATION OF FUTURE 17
RISKS.—The Secretary may consider future 18
risks to protecting property and health, safety, 19
and general welfare, and the likelihood of those 20
risks, when making the determination of or 21
modification to hazard-prone areas under this 22
paragraph. 23
‘‘(8) RELOCATION.— 24
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‘‘(A) I N GENERAL .—The Uniform Reloca-1
tion Assistance and Real Property Acquisition 2
Policies Act of 1970 (42 U.S.C. 4601 et seq.) 3
shall apply to activities assisted under this sec-4
tion to the extent determined by the Secretary 5
in regulation, or as provided in waivers or alter-6
native requirements authorized in accordance 7
with subsection (i). 8
‘‘(B) P OLICY.—Each grantee under this 9
section shall establish a relocation assistance 10
policy that— 11
‘‘(i) minimizes displacement and de-12
scribes the benefits available to persons 13
displaced as a direct result of acquisition, 14
rehabilitation, or demolition in connection 15
with an activity that is assisted by a grant 16
under this section; and 17
‘‘(ii) includes any appeal rights or 18
other requirements that the Secretary es-19
tablishes by regulation. 20
‘‘(d) CERTIFICATIONS.—Any grant under this section 21
shall be made only if the grantee certifies to the satisfac-22 tion of the Secretary that— 23
‘‘(1) the grantee is in full compliance with the 24
requirements under subsection (c)(2); 25
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‘‘(2) for grants other than grants to Indian 1
tribes, the grant will be conducted and administered 2
in conformity with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 3
U.S.C. 2000a et seq.) and the Fair Housing Act (42 4
U.S.C. 3601 et seq.); 5
‘‘(3) the projected use of funds has been devel-6
oped so as to give maximum feasible priority to ac-7
tivities that will benefit extremely low-, low-, and 8
moderate-income families and activities described in 9
subsection (c)(5), and may also include activities 10
that are designed to aid in the prevention or elimi-11
nation of slum and blight to support disaster recov-12
ery, meet other community development needs hav-13
ing a particular urgency because existing conditions 14 pose a serious and immediate threat to the health or 15 welfare of the community where other financial re-16
sources are not available to meet such needs, and al-17 leviate future threats to human populations, critical 18 natural resources, and property that an analysis of 19
hazards shows are likely to result from natural dis-20
asters in the future; 21
‘‘(4) the grant funds shall principally benefit 22
persons of low and moderate income as described in 23
subsection (c)(4); 24
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‘‘(5) for grants other than grants to Indian 1
Tribes, within 24 months of receiving a grant or at 2
the time of its 3- or 5-year update, whichever is 3
sooner, the grantee will review and make modifica-4
tions to its non-disaster housing and community de-5
velopment plans and strategies required by sub-6
sections (c) and (m) of section 104 to reflect the dis-7 aster recovery needs identified by the grantee and 8
consistency with the plan under subsection (c)(1); 9
‘‘(6) the grantee will not attempt to recover any 10
capital costs of public improvements assisted in 11
whole or part under this section by assessing any 12
amount against properties owned and occupied by 13
persons of low and moderate income, including any 14
fee charged or assessment made as a condition of 15
obtaining access to such public improvements, un-16
less— 17
‘‘(A) funds received under this section are 18
used to pay the proportion of such fee or as-19
sessment that relates to the capital costs of 20
such public improvements that are financed 21
from revenue sources other than under this 22
chapter; or 23
‘‘(B) for purposes of assessing any amount 24
against properties owned and occupied by per-25
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sons of moderate income, the grantee certifies 1
to the Secretary that the grantee lacks suffi-2
cient funds received under this section to com-3
ply with the requirements of subparagraph (A); 4
‘‘(7) the grantee will comply with the other pro-5
visions of this title that apply to assistance under 6
this section and with other applicable laws; 7
‘‘(8) the grantee will follow a relocation assist-8
ance policy that includes any minimum requirements 9
identified by the Secretary; and 10
‘‘(9) the grantee will adhere to construction 11
standards, insurance purchase requirements, and 12
other requirements for development in hazard-prone 13
areas described in subsection (c)(7). 14
‘‘(e) PERFORMANCE REVIEWS AND REPORTING.— 15
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL .—The Secretary shall, on not 16
less frequently than an annual basis, make such re-17
views and audits as may be necessary or appropriate 18
to determine whether a grantee under this section 19
has— 20
‘‘(A) carried out activities using grant 21
funds in a timely manner; 22
‘‘(B) met the performance targets estab-23
lished by paragraph (2); 24
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‘‘(C) carried out activities using grant 1
funds in accordance with the requirements of 2
this section, the other provisions of this title 3
that apply to assistance under this section, and 4
other applicable laws; and 5
‘‘(D) a continuing capacity to carry out ac-6
tivities in a timely manner. 7
‘‘(2) P ERFORMANCE TARGETS .—The Secretary 8
shall develop and make publicly available critical 9
performance targets for review, which shall include 10
spending thresholds for each year from the date on 11
which funds are obligated by the Secretary to the 12
grantee until such time all funds have been ex-13
pended. 14
‘‘(3) FAILURE TO MEET TARGETS .— 15
‘‘(A) S USPENSION.—If a grantee under 16
this section fails to meet 1 or more critical per-17
formance targets under paragraph (2), the Sec-18
retary may temporarily suspend the grant. 19
‘‘(B) P ERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT 20
PLAN.—If the Secretary suspends a grant 21
under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall 22
provide to the grantee a performance improve-23
ment plan with the specific requirements needed 24
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to lift the suspension within a defined time pe-1
riod. 2
‘‘(C) R EPORT.—If a grantee fails to meet 3
the spending thresholds established under para-4
graph (2), the grantee shall submit to the Sec-5
retary, the appropriate committees of Congress, 6
and each member of Congress who represents a 7
district or State of the grantee a written report 8
identifying technical capacity, funding, or other 9
Federal or State impediments affecting the abil-10
ity of the grantee to meet the spending thresh-11
olds. 12
‘‘(4) C OLLECTION OF INFORMATION AND RE -13
PORTING.— 14
‘‘(A) R EQUIREMENT TO REPORT .—A 15
grantee under this section shall provide to the 16
Secretary such information as the Secretary 17
may determine necessary for adequate oversight 18
of the grant program under this section. 19
‘‘(B) P UBLIC AVAILABILITY .—Subject to 20
subparagraph (D), the Secretary shall make in-21
formation submitted under subparagraph (A) 22
available to the public and to the Inspector 23
General for the Department of Housing and 24
Urban Development, disaggregated by activity, 25
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income, geography, and all classes of individuals 1
protected under section 109 and the Fair Hous-2
ing Act. 3
‘‘(C) S UMMARY STATUS REPORTS .—To in-4
crease transparency and accountability of the 5
grant program under this section the Secretary 6
shall, on not less frequently than an annual 7
basis, post on a public facing dashboard sum-8
mary status reports for all active grants under 9
this section that includes— 10
‘‘(i) the status of funds by activity; 11
‘‘(ii) the percentages of funds allo-12
cated and expended to benefit low- and 13
moderate-income communities; 14
‘‘(iii) performance targets, spending 15
thresholds, and accomplishments; and 16
‘‘(iv) other information the Secretary 17
determines to be relevant for transparency. 18
‘‘(D) C ONSIDERATIONS.—In carrying out 19
this paragraph, the Secretary— 20
‘‘(i) shall take such actions as may be 21
necessary to ensure that personally identi-22
fiable information regarding applicants for 23
assistance provided from funds made avail-24
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able under this section is not made publicly 1
available; and 2
‘‘(ii) may make full and unredacted 3
information available to academic institu-4
tions for the purpose of researching into 5
the equitable distribution of recovery funds 6
and adherence to civil rights protections. 7
‘‘(f) ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES.— 8
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—Activities assisted under 9
this section— 10
‘‘(A) may include activities permitted 11
under section 105 or other activities permitted 12
by the Secretary by waiver or alternative re-13
quirement pursuant to subsection (i); and 14
‘‘(B) shall be related to disaster relief, 15
long-term recovery, restoration of housing and 16
infrastructure, economic revitalization, and 17
mitigation in the most impacted and distressed 18
areas resulting from the major disaster for 19
which the grant was awarded. 20
‘‘(2) P ROHIBITION.—Grant funds under this 21
section may not be used for costs reimbursable by, 22
or for which funds have been made available by, the 23
Federal Emergency Management Agency, or the 24
United States Army Corps of Engineers. 25
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‘‘(3) A DMINISTRATIVE COSTS , TECHNICAL AS -1
SISTANCE AND PLANNING .— 2
‘‘(A) I N GENERAL .—The Secretary shall 3
establish in regulation the maximum grant 4
amounts a grantee may use for administrative 5
costs, technical assistance and planning activi-6
ties, taking into consideration size of grant, 7
complexity of recovery, and other factors as de-8
termined by the Secretary, but not to exceed 10 9
percent for administration and 20 percent in 10
total. 11
‘‘(B) A VAILABILITY.—Amounts available 12
for administrative costs for a grant under this 13
section shall be available for eligible administra-14
tive costs of the grantee for any grant made 15
under this section, without regard to a par-16
ticular disaster. 17
‘‘(4) P ROGRAM INCOME .—Notwithstanding any 18
other provision of law, any grantee under this sec-19
tion may retain program income that is realized 20
from grants made by the Secretary under this sec-21
tion if the grantee agrees that the grantee will uti-22 lize the program income in accordance with the re-23
quirements for grants under this section, except that 24 the Secretary may— 25
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‘‘(A) by regulation, exclude from consider-1
ation as program income any amounts deter-2
mined to be so small that compliance with this 3
paragraph creates an unreasonable administra-4
tive burden on the grantee; or 5
‘‘(B) permit the grantee to transfer re-6
maining program income to the other grants of 7
the grantee under this title upon closeout of the 8
grant. 9
‘‘(5) PROHIBITION ON USE OF ASSISTANCE FOR 10
EMPLOYMENT RELOCATION ACTIVITIES .— 11
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL .—Grants under this sec-12
tion may not be used to assist directly in the 13
relocation of any industrial or commercial plant, 14
facility, or operation, from one area to another 15
area, if the relocation is likely to result in a sig-16 nificant loss of employment in the labor market 17
area from which the relocation occurs. 18
‘‘(B) A PPLICABILITY.—The prohibition 19
under subparagraph (A) shall not apply to a 20
business that was operating in the disaster-de-21
clared labor market area before the incident 22
date of the applicable disaster and has since 23
moved, in whole or in part, from the affected 24
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area to another State or to a labor market area 1
within the same State to continue business. 2
‘‘(6) R EQUIREMENTS.—Grants under this sec-3
tion are subject to the requirements of this section, 4 the other provisions of this title that apply to assist-5 ance under this section, and other applicable laws, 6
unless modified by waivers or alternative require-7
ments in accordance with subsection (i). 8
‘‘(g) ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW.— 9
‘‘(1) ADOPTION.—A recipient of funds provided 10
under this section that uses the funds to supplement 11 Federal assistance provided under section 203, 402, 12
403, 404, 406, 407, 408(c)(4), 428, or 502 of the 13
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 14
Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170a, 5170b, 5170c, 15
5172, 5173, 5174(c)(4), 5189f, 5192) may adopt, 16
without review or public comment, any environ-17
mental review, approval, or permit performed by a 18
Federal agency, and that adoption shall satisfy the 19
responsibilities of the recipient with respect to the 20 environmental review, approval, or permit under sec-21
tion 104(g)(1). 22
‘‘(2) A PPROVAL OF RELEASE OF FUNDS .—Not-23
withstanding section 104(g)(2), the Secretary or a 24
State may, upon receipt of a request for release of 25
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funds and certification, immediately approve the re-1
lease of funds for an activity or project to be as-2
sisted under this section if the recipient has adopted 3 an environmental review, approval, or permit under 4
paragraph (1) or the activity or project is categori-5
cally excluded from review under the National Envi-6
ronmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et 7
seq.). 8
‘‘(3) U NITS OF GENERAL LOCAL GOVERN -9
MENT.—The provisions of section 104(g)(4) shall 10
apply to assistance under this section that a State 11
distributes to a unit of general local government. 12
‘‘(h) FINANCIAL CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES.— 13
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL .—The Secretary shall develop 14
requirements and procedures to demonstrate that a 15
grantee under this section— 16
‘‘(A) has adequate financial controls and 17
procurement processes; 18
‘‘(B) has adequate procedures to detect 19
and prevent fraud, waste, abuse, and duplica-20
tion of benefit; and 21
‘‘(C) maintains a comprehensive and pub-22
licly accessible website. 23
‘‘(2) C ERTIFICATION.—Before making a grant 24
under this section, the Secretary shall certify that 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:45 Jun 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00043 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1686.IS S1686kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 44 •S 1686 IS
the grantee has in place proficient processes and 1
procedures to comply with the requirements devel-2
oped under paragraph (1), as determined by the 3
Secretary. 4
‘‘(3) C OMPLIANCE BEFORE ALLOCATION .—The 5
Secretary may permit a State, unit of general local 6
government, or Indian tribe to demonstrate compli-7
ance with the requirements for adequate financial 8
controls developed under paragraph (1) before a dis-9
aster occurs and before receiving an allocation for a 10 grant under this section. 11
‘‘(4) DUPLICATION OF BENEFITS .— 12
‘‘(A) I N GENERAL .—Funds made available 13
under this section shall be used in accordance 14
with section 312 of the Robert T. Stafford Dis-15
aster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 16
U.S.C. 5155), as amended by section 1210 of 17
the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (di-18
vision D of Public Law 115–254), and such 19
rules as may be prescribed under such section 20
312. 21
‘‘(B) P ENALTIES.—In any case in which 22
the use of grant funds under this section results 23
in a prohibited duplication of benefits, the 24
grantee shall— 25
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‘‘(i) apply an amount equal to the 1
identified duplication to any allowable costs 2
of the award consistent with actual, imme-3
diate cash requirement; 4
‘‘(ii) remit any excess amounts to the 5
Secretary to be credited to the obligated, 6
undisbursed balance of the grant con-7
sistent with requirements on Federal pay-8
ments applicable to such grantee; and 9
‘‘(iii) if excess amounts under clause 10
(ii) are identified after the period of per-11
formance or after the closeout of the 12
award, remit such amounts to the Sec-13
retary to be credited to the Fund. 14
‘‘(C) F AILURE TO COMPLY .—Any grantee 15
provided funds under this section or from prior 16
Appropriations Acts under the heading ‘Com-17
munity Development Fund’ for purposes related 18
to major disasters that fails to comply with sec-19
tion 312 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Re-20
lief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 21
5155) or fails to satisfy penalties to resolve a 22
duplication of benefits shall be subject to rem-23
edies for noncompliance under section 111, un-24
less the Secretary publishes a determination in 25
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the Federal Register that it is not in the best 1
interest of the Federal Government to pursue 2
remedial actions. 3
‘‘(i) WAIVERS.— 4
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—In administering grants 5
under this section, the Secretary may waive, or 6
specify alternative requirements for, any provision of 7 any statute or regulation that the Secretary admin-8
isters in connection with the obligation by the Sec-9
retary or the use by the grantee of those funds (ex-10
cept for requirements related to fair housing, non-11
discrimination, labor standards, the environment, 12
and the requirements of this section that do not ex-13
pressly authorize modifications by waiver or alter-14
native requirement), if the Secretary makes a public 15 finding that good cause exists for the waiver or al-16
ternative requirement and the waiver or alternative 17
requirement would not be inconsistent with the find-18
ings in section 2 of the Reforming Disaster Recovery 19 Act. 20
‘‘(2) E FFECTIVE DATE .—A waiver or alter-21
native requirement described in paragraph (1) shall 22
not take effect before the date that is 5 days after 23 the date of publication of the waiver or alternative 24 requirement on the website of the Department of 25
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Housing and Urban Development or the effective 1
date for any regulation published in the Federal 2
Register. 3
‘‘(3) P UBLIC NOTIFICATION .—The Secretary 4
shall notify the public of all waivers or alternative 5 requirements described in paragraph (1) in accord-6
ance with the requirements of section 7(q)(3) of the 7
Department of Housing and Urban Development 8
Act (42 U.S.C. 3535(q)(3)). 9
‘‘(j) UNUSED AMOUNTS.— 10
‘‘(1) D EADLINE TO USE AMOUNTS .—A grantee 11
under this section shall use an amount equal to the 12
grant within 6 years beginning on the date on which 13
the Secretary obligates the amounts to the grantee, 14
as such period may be extended under paragraph 15
(4). 16
‘‘(2) R ECAPTURE.—The Secretary shall recap-17
ture and credit to the Fund any amount that is un-18
used by a grantee under this section upon the earlier 19 of— 20
‘‘(A) the date on which the grantee notifies 21
the Secretary that the grantee has completed all 22
activities identified in the disaster grantee’s 23
plan under subsection (c); or 24
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‘‘(B) the expiration of the 6-year period 1
described in paragraph (1), as such period may 2
be extended under paragraph (4). 3
‘‘(3) R ETENTION OF FUNDS .—Notwithstanding 4
paragraph (1), the Secretary may allow a grantee 5
under this section to retain— 6
‘‘(A) amounts needed to close out grants; 7
and 8
‘‘(B) up to 10 percent of the remaining 9
funds to support maintenance of the minimal 10
capacity to launch a new program in the event 11
of a future disaster and to support pre-disaster 12
long-term recovery and mitigation planning. 13
‘‘(4) E XTENSION OF PERIOD FOR USE OF 14
FUNDS.—The Secretary may extend the 6-year pe-15
riod described in paragraph (1) by not more than 4 16
years, or not more than 6 years for mitigation activi-17 ties, if— 18
‘‘(A) the grantee submits to the Sec-19
retary— 20
‘‘(i) written documentation of the exi-21
gent circumstances impacting the ability of 22
the grantee to expend funds that could not 23
be anticipated; or 24
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‘‘(ii) a justification that such request 1
is necessary due to the nature and com-2
plexity of the program and projects; and 3
‘‘(B) the Secretary submits a written jus-4
tification for the extension to the Committees 5
on Appropriations of Senate and the House of 6
Representatives that specifies the period of that 7
extension.’’. 8
SEC. 7. REGULATIONS. 9
(a) PROPOSED RULES.—Following consultation with 10
the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small 11
Business Administration, and other Federal agencies, not 12 later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this 13 Act, the Secretary shall issue proposed rules to carry out 14 this Act and the amendments made by this Act and shall 15 provide a 90-day period for submission of public comments 16 on those proposed rules. 17
(b) F INAL RULES.—Not later than 1 year after the 18
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue 19 final regulations to carry out section 123 of the Housing 20 and Community Development Act of 1974, as added by 21
section 6. 22
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SEC. 8. COORDINATION OF DISASTER RECOVERY ASSIST-1
ANCE, BENEFITS, AND DATA WITH OTHER 2
FEDERAL AGENCIES. 3
(a) COORDINATION OF DISASTER RECOVERY ASSIST-4
ANCE.—In order to ensure a comprehensive approach to 5
Federal disaster relief, long-term recovery, restoration of 6 housing and infrastructure, economic revitalization, and 7 mitigation in the most impacted and distressed areas re-8 sulting from a catastrophic major disaster, the Secretary 9 shall coordinate with the Federal Emergency Management 10 Agency, to the greatest extent practicable, in the imple-11 mentation of assistance authorized under section 123 of 12 the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, 13
as added by section 6. 14
(b) D ATA SHARING AGREEMENTS.—To support the 15
coordination of data to prevent duplication of benefits with 16 other Federal disaster recovery programs while also expe-17 diting recovery and reducing burden on disaster survivors, 18 the Department shall establish data sharing agreements 19 that safeguard privacy with relevant Federal agencies to 20 ensure disaster benefits effectively and efficiently reach in-21 tended beneficiaries, while using effective means of pre-22 venting harm to people and property. 23
(c) D ATA TRANSFER FROM FEMA AND SBA TO 24
HUD.—As permitted and deemed necessary for efficient 25 program execution, and consistent with a computer match-26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Jun 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00050 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1686.IS S1686kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 51 •S 1686 IS
ing agreement entered into under subsection (f)(1), the 1 Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management 2
Agency and the Administrator of the Small Business Ad-3 ministration shall provide data on disaster applicants to 4 the Department, including, when necessary, personally 5 identifiable information, disaster recovery needs, and re-6 sources determined eligible for, and amounts expended, to 7 the Secretary for all major disasters declared by the Presi-8 dent pursuant to section 401 of Robert T. Stafford Dis-9 aster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 10 5170) for the purpose of providing additional assistance 11 to disaster survivors and prevent duplication of benefits. 12 (d) DATA TRANSFERS FROM HUD TO HUD GRANT-13
EES.—The Secretary is authorized to provide to grantees 14 under section 123 of the Housing and Community Devel-15 opment Act of 1974, as added by section 6, offices of the 16 Department, technical assistance providers, and lenders 17 information that in the determination of the Secretary is 18 reasonably available and appropriate to inform the provi-19 sion of assistance after a major disaster, including infor-20 mation provided to the Secretary by the Administrator of 21 the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Admin-22
istrator of the Small Business Administration, or other 23 Federal agencies. 24
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(e) D ATA TRANSFERS FROM HUD G RANTEES TO 1
HUD, FEMA, AND SBA.— 2
(1) R EPORTING.—Grantees under section 123 3
of the Housing and Community Development Act of 4
1974, as added by section 6, shall report informa-5
tion requested by the Secretary on households, busi-6
nesses, and other entities assisted and the type of 7
assistance provided. 8
(2) S HARING INFORMATION .—The Secretary 9
shall share information collected under paragraph 10
(1) with the Federal Emergency Management Agen-11
cy, the Small Business Administration, and other 12
Federal agencies to support the planning and deliv-13
ery of disaster recovery and mitigation assistance 14
and other related purposes. 15
(f) PRIVACY PROTECTION.—The Secretary may make 16
and receive data transfers authorized under this section, 17 including the use and retention of that data for computer 18 matching programs, to inform the provision of assistance, 19 assess disaster recovery needs, and prevent the duplication 20 of benefits and other waste, fraud, and abuse, provided 21 that— 22
(1) the Secretary enters an information sharing 23
agreement or a computer matching agreement, when 24
required by section 522a of title 5, United States 25
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Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Privacy Act of 1
1974’’), with the Administrator of the Federal 2
Emergency Management Agency, the Administrator 3
of the Small Business Administration, or other Fed-4
eral agencies covering the transfer of data; 5
(2) the Secretary publishes intent to disclose 6
data in the Federal Register; 7
(3) notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2), 8
section 552a of title 5, United States Code, or any 9
other law, the Secretary is authorized to share data 10 with an entity identified in subsection (d), and the 11 entity is authorized to use the data as described in 12 this section, if the Secretary enters a data sharing 13 agreement with the entity before sharing or receiving 14 any information under transfers authorized by this 15
section, which data sharing agreement shall— 16
(A) in the determination of the Secretary, 17
include measures adequate to safeguard the pri-18
vacy and personally identifiable information of 19
individuals; and 20
(B) include provisions that describe how 21
the personally identifiable information of an in-22
dividual will be adequately safeguarded and 23
protected, which requires consultation with the 24
Secretary and the head of each Federal agency 25
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the data of which is being shared subject to the 1
agreement. 2
Æ
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