"Reforming Disaster Recovery Act” was introduced in the Senate on May 18 by Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Susan Collins (R-ME), along with bipartisan sponsorship from 12 additional senators. The bill is strongly supported by NLIHC and the NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC). The bipartisan bill contains critical reforms proposed by DHRC members to help ensure the federal government’s long-term disaster recovery program, the Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, better serves disaster survivors who have lowest incomes and their communities. The twelve other co-sponsors are: Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Jon Tester (D-MT), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Todd Young (R-IN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Corey Booker (D-GA).
The CDBG-DR program is currently unauthorized, meaning HUD must create and publish new rules through a Federal Register notice each time funds are appropriated by Congress for the program after major Presidentially Declared Disasters. These additional requirements prevent sorely needed long-term recovery funds from reaching disaster survivors quickly. The “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act” would permanently authorize the CDBG-DR program and direct HUD to codify program requirements, allowing states to anticipate program rules and prepare before disasters strike. The bill would also cement the requirement that funds be used to assist low-income disaster survivors, authorize “quick-release” funding to support state and local capacity in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and allow HUD to assist disaster-damaged communities without waiting for congressional approval.
The reintroduced version of the bill is identical to the previous version introduced in the Senate during the previous conference. While the bill failed to move out of the Senate Banking Committee last year, the house version of the bill was passed on the floor as part of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, but the language failed to survive negotiations regarding the final package. Since then, bipartisan support for the bill has grown significantly.
“Our nation’s disaster housing recovery system is fundamentally broken and in need of major reform. After each disaster, the lowest-income and most marginalized people and communities are left behind, putting households at increased risk of displacement, and in worst cases homelessness, while also placing already disinvested communities at greater risk of harm due to future disasters,” said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition in a press release by Senator Schatz announcing the bill’s introduction. “NLIHC and its Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition of nearly 900 local, state, and national organizations urge Congress to quickly enact the bipartisan Reforming Disaster Recovery Act as an important step toward ensuring critical federal recovery resources can efficiently and quickly reach those with the greatest, clearest needs.”
Read the text of the bill at: https://bit.ly/3oke38P
Read the press release at: https://bit.ly/3Mc42SU
More information about disaster housing programs is on page 6-52 of NLIHC’s 2023 Advocates’ Guide