Legislation introduced by U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Richard Burr (R-NC) would ensure their North Carolina constituents and Americans around the country recover more quickly following a natural disaster.
“North Carolina families are unfortunately all too familiar with the destruction caused by natural disasters like Hurricanes Matthew, Florence, and most recently Dorian,” Sen. Tillis said. “We cannot let red tape stand in the way of helping them get their lives back together.”
Sen. Tillis on Nov. 6 sponsored the Ensuring Disaster Recovery For Local Communities Act, S. 2796, with Sen. Burr cosponsoring the bill, which would expedite disaster assistance to states, insular areas, units of general local government, and Indian tribes under a community development block grant disaster recovery (CDBG-DR) program, according to the congressional record summary.
“My legislation is based on input from federal, state, and local officials, as well as families in North Carolina that are still reeling due to an inefficient and heavily bureaucratic recovery process,” explained Sen. Tillis. “The commonsense reforms I’m proposing will empower local communities and get federal assistance in the hands of North Carolina families sooner.”
If enacted, S. 2796 would allow the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to allocate the CDBG-DR funding directly to local communities, set spending goals for grantees, and require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to decide on a state’s application no later than 60 days after it is submitted.
“It’s unacceptable that some North Carolina counties are still waiting for disaster recovery assistance after the devastation left by recent hurricanes,” said Sen. Burr. “We can help fix this long-standing problem by empowering local communities to directly receive federal assistance from HUD if there are continued delays.”
The bill also would permit local communities to access federal disaster assistance by taking over funds as a subgrantee. And for communities lacking the capacity to administer CDBG-DR funds, HUD would provide them with technical assistance, according to a bill summary provided by Sen. Tillis’ office.
Additionally, S. 2796 would direct the Government Accountability Office to review property acquisition programs administered by FEMA and make recommendations on how to streamline and expedite delivery of funds to storm survivors, according to the summary.