HLS 23RS-1549 REENGROSSED
2023 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 55
BY REPRESENTATIVES FIRMENT, BOURRIAQUE, FARNUM, GAROFALO,
LANDRY, MCMAHEN, ORGERON, PHELPS, RISER, SCHLEGEL, WHITE,
AND WILLARD
CONGRESS: Memorializes congress to pass legislation allowing for tax-advantaged
catastrophe savings accounts
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2To memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to pass
3 legislation allowing taxpayers to establish tax-advantaged catastrophe savings
4 accounts for disaster-related expenses.
5 WHEREAS, three U.S. states – Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina – currently
6provide within their respective tax codes for catastrophe savings accounts; and
7 WHEREAS, these accounts are regular savings or money market accounts that
8taxpayers designate with their financial institutions as catastrophe savings accounts and to
9which limited amounts of tax-deductible contributions may be made; and
10 WHEREAS, the laws of the three states that provide for such accounts all stipulate
11that a taxpayer may establish only one catastrophe savings account and shall specify that the
12purpose of the account is to cover the amount of insurance deductibles and other uninsured
13portions of risks of loss from floods, hurricanes, or other catastrophic windstorm events; and
14 WHEREAS, funds may be withdrawn from these accounts tax-free if used to pay
15disaster-related expenses defined in law as "qualified catastrophe expenses"; if funds are
16withdrawn from these accounts for purposes other than paying qualified catastrophe
17expenses, then the amounts withdrawn are taxed as income; and
18 WHEREAS, the function of catastrophe savings accounts with respect to disaster-
19related expenses is similar to that of health savings accounts, long established in the Internal
20Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. 223), for health-related expenses; and
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HCR NO. 55
1 WHEREAS, with the frequency and destructive force of weather-related disasters
2increasing nationwide, the need for some form of catastrophe or emergency savings account
3program for all Americans has become more pronounced; and
4 WHEREAS, legislation providing exclusively for the type of savings account
5discussed in this Resolution was introduced in the One Hundred Fifteenth United States
6Congress (H.R. 2818) and legislation including a catastrophe savings account component
7has been introduced in the current congress (One Hundred Eighteenth United States
8Congress, H.R. 312).
9 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
10memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to pass
11legislation allowing taxpayers to establish tax-advantaged catastrophe savings accounts for
12disaster-related expenses.
13 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
14presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the
15United States of America and to each member of the Louisiana congressional delegation.
DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute
part of the law or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HCR 55 Reengrossed 2023 Regular Session Firment
Memorializes the U.S. Congress to pass legislation allowing taxpayers to establish
tax-advantaged catastrophe savings accounts for disaster-related expenses.
Summary of Amendments Adopted by House
The House Floor Amendments to the engrossed bill:
1. Delete references to the Emergency Savings Accounts Act of 2023 in the
instrument's directive.
2. Revise findings relative to federal legislation providing for tax-advantaged
savings accounts for disaster-related expenses.
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