Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7671, legislation authored by Representative Neguse and cosponsored by Representatives D'Esposito, Titus, Ezell, and Stanton. The bill will incentivize faster recovery for federally declared disasters and lower costs. It also enables State and local emergency managers to build capacity for future disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. When managing Federal disaster declarations, States administer FEMA grants that may be worth billions of dollars. FEMA allows States to utilize a percentage of those grants to cover the cost of administrator requirements and grant management. Current law requires management costs to be strictly tied to each specific disaster declaration. However, most States are managing recovery for multiple disaster declarations simultaneously. A project inspector working a full day may visit multiple disaster sites in a State. If those sites are associated with more than one disaster, all associated costs must be parceled out to possibly dozens of open grants. This is inefficient, wastes taxpayer dollars, and slows recovery. This bill encourages efficiency by allowing States to use their management funds across all open disasters. Additionally, H.R. 7671 helps build capacity at FEMA and at the local level by rewarding applicants that complete recoveries from major disaster declarations quickly.…”