House Unanimously Approves Graves Co-authored Disaster Recovery Bill

House Unanimously Approves Graves Co-authored Disaster Recovery Bill

Quick Senate approval expected before president's signature

Congressman Garret Graves (South Louisiana) announced today the unanimous House approval of H.R. 2672, the FEMA Loan Interest Payment Relief Act, a bill co-authored by Congressmen Neal Dunn (Florida) and Darren Soto (Florida), which requires FEMA to pay interest on reimbursements to local governments and electrical cooperatives. To force action on the bill, Graves previously added this provision as an amendment to other legislation moving through Congress.

"FEMA has no incentive to be efficient. The Inspector General recently found that the disaster agency had $71 billion in outstanding reimbursement claims from state and local governments - some dating back over a decade. When disaster costs aren't paid, our towns, cities and parishes often have to cut other government services to pay for or float disaster response and recovery efforts. This means impacted communities are hit once by the disaster and hit again by FEMA. Our bill changes that," Graves said.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed H.R. 2672 on September 19, 2024, along with other pro-disaster victim bills authored by Graves. The Senate is expected to quickly approve H.R. 2672, and it will then go to the president for his signature.

Background

Under the bill, local governments and electric cooperatives (DEMCO, WST Electric, SLECA, etc.) can take a loan from a local bank to cover disaster response and recovery costs while FEMA bureaucrats process claims. This changes the paradigm by effectively charging FEMA for delays rather than charging disaster communities - it incentivizes faster reimbursements and recovery. When this bill becomes law, it will result in more financial resources for communities to recover from disasters and for disaster victims to get back on their feet.

These types of loans are often critical for parishes, cities and co-ops to rebuild and restore some normalcy. The loans help local governments rebuild buildings and schools and community assets. They also help electric co-ops to restore power service and infrastructure. As public entities, they are supported entirely by local taxpayers and ratepayers (likely disaster victims themselves) who need all possible resources available to recover from disasters.