{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://graves.house.gov/media/press-releases/graves-bill-speed-disaster-recovery-efforts-become-law", "Graves Bill to Speed Disaster Recovery Efforts to Become Law", "2022-09-29", "2022", "2022-09", "Republican", "House", "MO", "Sam Graves", "G000546", "graves.house.gov", "graves", "https://graves.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 A bipartisan bill led by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Sam Graves (MO-06) to expedite disaster recovery projects across the Nation, particularly in small and rural areas, has passed both the House and Senate and has been sent to the President to be signed into law.\n\nThe Small Project Efficient and Effective Disaster (SPEED) Recovery Act (H.R. 5641) updates the threshold for what the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) deems a \u201csmall project\u201d for communities seeking disaster assistance. Small projects do not face the same administrative burdens and paperwork required for larger, more complex projects. Communities can move forward with small projects in a much more expedited manner.\n\n\u201cThe SPEED Recovery Act will help cut the red tape that many communities have to deal with to secure disaster assistance. This legislation is especially helpful for small and rural communities that simply do not have the same types of resources as large and urban areas to navigate the bureaucracy,\u201d said Graves. \u201cThis bill will allow smaller recovery projects to move forward quickly, help disaster victims begin to get back on their feet sooner rather than later, and allow FEMA to better focus its resources when larger disasters strike.\u201d\n\nBackground Information\n\nThe SPEED Recovery Act updates the small project threshold to $1 million. Historically, the number of disaster projects that qualified as small projects with simplified procedures accounted for 95% of such projects. However, because the threshold for a \u201csmall project\u201d has not kept pace with inflation and modern construction costs, a much larger percentage of projects (nearly 25% of all recovery projects) now fall outside of the scope of a \u201csmall project.\u201d This has added unnecessary paperwork and burdens for both communities and FEMA", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:08:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://graves.house.gov/media/press-releases/graves-bill-speed-disaster-recovery-efforts-become-law"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8789091370999813, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}