Congressional leaders are continuing negotiations this week over what to include in a final omnibus fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget bill. Depending on the results of these negotiations, the budget bill could include a pivotal piece of bipartisan disaster recovery reform legislation: the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act (RDRA) (S.2471/H.R. 4707).
Passing the bipartisan RDRA is a top priority for NLIHC and the Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC). If enacted, the bill would permanently authorize a key disaster recovery program that provides states and communities with the long-term resources needed to rebuild affordable housing and infrastructure after a disaster. The bill also includes important safeguards and tools to help ensure that federal disaster recovery efforts reach the lowest-income and most marginalized survivors, who are often hardest hit by disasters and face the longest, steepest paths to recovery. Your members of Congress need to hear from you! If you have a Republican Senator, please contact them today and urge them to ask Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to include the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act in the final FY2023 budget omnibus package.
The Reforming Disaster Recovery Act – introduced by Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI), Susan Collins (R-ME), Todd Young (R-IN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Representative Al Green (D-TX) – would formally authorize the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program to ensure these critical resources reach survivors and their communities more quickly after a disaster and are better targeted to those with the greatest needs. CDBG-DR is a vital tool that provides flexible, long-term resources needed by communities to rebuild after a disaster and to prepare for future harm. The lack of formal authorization and congressional inaction, however, has led to unnecessary delays that harm survivors and communities. Without the additional safeguards and transparency provisions included in the RDRA, recovery and mitigation efforts can be inconsistent and steer funding away from those most in need. The 2019 version of the bill was unanimously passed out of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Financial Services and was approved by the House with bipartisan support following a vote. HUD and the Government Accountability Office under the past two administrations have agreed that permanently authorizing the CDBG-DR program would vastly improve the operation of the country’s most important long-term disaster recovery program.
The support of Minority Leader McConnell is essential if the legislation is to be included in a year-end budget bill. If you have a Republican Senator, please contact them today and urge them to ask Minority Leader McConnell to include the bill in the FY2023 budget omnibus!
Reach out to your Republican Senators about the bill at: https://p2a.co/7j2floR