On the recordMarch 26, 2015
I am proud to introduce today a bill to try to bring some transparency and fairness into FEMA's disaster declaration process. It is the Fairness in Federal Disaster Declarations Act. The inspiration for the bill was a tragic one. On February 29, 2012, leap day, a category F-4 tornado tore through southeastern Illinois, causing damage in 11 Illinois counties and causing major damage in the small towns of Harrisburg and Ridgway. Eight people in Harrisburg, alone, died in the event and 15 people were killed in total. Winds reached 175-miles per hour. It is not too much of a stretch to say these two small towns were almost wiped off the map. Requests for Federal assistance after a disaster are made by the Governor of each State. The state emergency management agency typically does a preliminary damage assessment and then the Governor decides whether State resources are adequate to absorb the costs of clean up and recovery. In the case of the Harrisburg and Ridgway tornado, the Governor's request for federal emergency designation for Individual Assistance was denied, as was the State's appeal of that decision. With that denial, individuals whose homes or properties were damaged were precluded from direct federal help. I asked FEMA why it denied the Governor's request--which was supported by my colleague Senator Kirk and me, along with the entire Illinois delegation--and we were told it was because the disaster did not meet or exceed the State's per capita.…
