{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/schatz-collins-young-leahy-cassidy-introduce-bipartisan-legislation-to-reform-disaster-recovery", "Schatz, Collins, Young, Leahy, Cassidy Introduce Bipartisan Legislation To Reform Disaster Recovery", "2021-07-22", "2021", "2021-07", "Democrat", "Senate", "HI", "Brian Schatz", "S001194", "www.schatz.senate.gov", "schatz", "https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai\u2018i), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.) today introduced legislation to help communities plan for and recover from major disasters. The Reforming Disaster Recovery Act would strengthen the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development\u2019s (HUD) disaster recovery grants for states, local governments, and tribes. It would also improve coordination at the federal level by establishing an office within HUD that would be devoted to disaster recovery and resilient communities.\n\n\u201cRight now, the law mandates that communities in crisis wait for Congress to pass a disaster funding bill before they can even apply for help from HUD. This bill changes the law so they no longer have to wait. As soon as a disaster strikes, HUD can help communities begin the process of recovery,\u201d said Senator Schatz, Chairman of the Housing Appropriations Subcommittee.\n\n\u201cWith natural disasters increasing in frequency and intensity, it is critical that states have the necessary resources to respond in order to protect public safety, property, and our economy,\u201d said Senator Collins, the Ranking Member of the Housing Appropriations Subcommittee. \u201cOur bipartisan legislation would allow communities to immediately focus on helping families and local businesses recover instead of navigating the federal bureaucracy in the wake of a natural disaster.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur legislation would streamline, reform, and inject greater fiscal responsibility into the broken CDBG Disaster Recovery Program,\u201d said Senator Young. \u201cThis is a response to reports from the Government Accountability Office and HUD\u2019s Office of Inspector General recommending Congress permanently codify the program to avoid funding lags and rid duplicative requirements in the wake of a disaster.\u201d\n\n\u201cDamage from disasters can be unpredictable, but the process of getting funding for long-term recovery shouldn\u2019t be. Congress has an opportunity to ensure that communities suffering from the long-term effects of disasters can access funding from the CDBG-DR program on a reasonable and predictable timeline. This bill will fix the haphazard process of allocating funding on a case-by-case basis and give community leaders and residents one less thing to worry about in the aftermath of a disaster,\u201d said Senator Leahy.\n\n\u201cRed tape and delays hurts families trying to recover from disaster,\u201d said Senator Cassidy. \u201cThis legislation streamlines the process to get communities the resources they need, as soon as possible, to get back on their feet.\u201d\n\nThe bill addresses long-standing recommendations from the HUD Office of the Inspector General and Government Accountability Office to establish a permanent and predictable funding process. The bill accelerates assistance to disaster-impacted communities by:\n\nCreating a disaster recovery fund to allow HUD to predictably assist communities without waiting for Congress to act on each event;\n\nAuthorizing HUD to issue regulations to codify program requirements and reduce unnecessary red tape, delays, and unpredictability that stems from the current Federal Register notice process;\n\nSupporting resilience as a part of \u2013 rather than separate from \u2013 disaster recovery;\n\nAuthorizing \u201cquick release\u201d funds to support grantee capacity right after an event; and\n\nReducing unnecessary administrative burdens and interagency requirement conflicts.\n\nThe full text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:03:51Z"]], "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://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/schatz-collins-young-leahy-cassidy-introduce-bipartisan-legislation-to-reform-disaster-recovery"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8029500022530556, "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"}