Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act

Floor Speech

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Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

First of all, I rise in support of this bill, H.R. 2016, the Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act.

First, I want to thank Chairman DeFazio and Ranking Member Graves for bringing this bill to the floor, as well as Chairwoman Norton. But I would also like to thank Representative Scott Peters from California for cosponsoring this legislation.

In the last Congress, I joined with former colleague, Mark Meadows, in proposing this bill, and it was with great satisfaction that I see it come to the floor.

This is a simple bill that will establish a process to identify ways to streamline and consolidate the collection of certain disaster information in order to start the recovery process for individuals, families, and government devastated by natural disasters.

While FEMA is the lead Federal agency on disasters, there are multiple Federal agencies involved in every disaster response and recovery. This often leads to duplicative assessments and causes serious delays for the recovery process to begin.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and the seismic activity in Puerto Rico, we discovered how Federal agency after Federal agency, from FEMA, to HUD, to SBA, would require the same information from applicants, location, nature of damage, ownership, value of damage, estimated repair costs, among many others, in each of their preliminary assessments.

There was no process to share this information between the Federal agencies, which ultimately caused significant delays during both immediate relief and long-term recovery. At one point, these represented more than 70,000 assessments of individual worksites that each needed to be completed by FEMA. Many of these assessments will be small parts of a larger project; sites costing under $126,000, with responsibilities divided among municipalities and State agencies. Many of these were each, itself, a part of a larger process.

For example, repairs to individual pipes, storage tanks or pumps of an aqueduct system; and having to evaluate each site individually will slow down the whole project.

After many complaints from us and the local governments, FEMA, finally, in 2020, decided to begin consolidating these assessments for Puerto Rico to speed up the project delivery process across multiple Federal agencies.

I think it is critically important that Federal response agencies work together to minimize overlaps in their assessments and take advantage of the newest technologies.

Specifically, this bill will establish a Federal working group led by FEMA that will work with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, and in consultation with HUD, SBA, HHS, EDA, the Department of Labor, and OMB to identify ways to reduce duplication and modernize the Federal damage assessments process.

This is a good government bill that will help expedite all forms of disaster recovery across the Nation. As we have learned in Puerto Rico, it is not a matter of if there is a next disaster; it is about when it is going to happen, at least in our case.

So we must be ready to respond in a way that takes care of the immediate needs of those facing a disaster and of rebuilding with resiliency. That response needs to be efficient and effective, and with this legislation, we are going to help bring this about.

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Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Van Duyne).

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Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves), my friend and the ranking member of the Aviation Subcommittee.

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Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Guest).

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Miss GONZALEZ-COLON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I just want to say, in closing, that H.R. 2016 is a good-government, bipartisan piece of legislation that will help streamline and improve disaster recovery efforts.

It is not just Puerto Rico. It is not just the Caribbean. From the western part of the United States to even the territories, we are all affected by natural disasters.

I want to thank, again, Representative Scott Peters from California for co-leading this legislation, as well as Chairman DeFazio and Ranking Member Graves for recognizing the merits of this bill.

I urge support of H.R. 2016, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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