Texas 2015 - 84th Regular

Texas House Bill HB2376 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	84R5349 MK-D
2	2	By: Turner of Harris H.B. No. 2376
3	3
4	4
5	5	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
6	6	AN ACT
7	7	relating to the creation and administration of a disaster recovery
8	8	fund.
9	9	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
10	10	SECTION 1. Chapter 418, Government Code, is amended by
11	11	adding Subchapter I to read as follows:
12	12	SUBCHAPTER I. DISASTER RECOVERY FUND
13	13	Sec. 418.201. PURPOSE; INTENT. It is the intent of the
14	14	legislature that in recovering from a disaster, the first recourse
15	15	of state and local governmental entities and volunteer
16	16	organizations should be to the money regularly appropriated to
17	17	those entities or money received by those entities from other
18	18	sources in the normal course of operations. Assistance grants
19	19	provided under this subchapter are intended to mitigate
20	20	extraordinary burdens of state or local governmental entities and
21	21	volunteer organizations in relation to available resources.
22	22	Sec. 418.202. DEFINITION. In this subchapter, "fund" means
23	23	the disaster recovery fund account.
24	24	Sec. 418.203. DISASTER RECOVERY FUND ACCOUNT. (a) The
25	25	disaster recovery fund is an account in the general revenue fund to
26	26	be administered by the division. Money in the fund may be
27	27	appropriated only for a grant awarded under this subchapter.
28	28	(b) The fund consists of:
29	29	(1) money credited, appropriated, or transferred to
30	30	the fund at the direction of the legislature;
31	31	(2) federal money credited or transferred to the fund;
32	32	and
33	33	(3) gifts and grants contributed to the fund.
34	34	Sec. 418.204. USE OF MONEY IN DISASTER RECOVERY FUND. The
35	35	division may award from the fund a grant to a state or local
36	36	governmental entity or a volunteer fire department that
37	37	participates in disaster recovery in an area where the governor has
38	38	declared a state of disaster to assist in the payment of the
39	39	entity's costs incurred for its recovery efforts. Money granted
40	40	from the fund may be used only for:
41	41	(1) a nonfederal match required for a Federal
42	42	Emergency Management Agency qualifying project;
43	43	(2) a disaster recovery project to remedy the public
44	44	damage and direct loss incurred as a result of a disaster; and
45	45	(3) reimbursement of the entity for costs incurred by
46	46	compensating its employees for disaster recovery-related
47	47	activities that are performed in response to the disaster and that
48	48	are outside of the scope of the employees' normal duties.
49	49	Sec. 418.205. APPLICATION FOR GRANT FROM DISASTER RECOVERY
50	50	FUND. The division shall develop and implement rules, procedures,
51	51	and an application process for an entity to request a grant from the
52	52	fund. An application for a grant must include:
53	53	(1) a description of the purposes for which the
54	54	applicant is requesting the grant assistance;
55	55	(2) an estimated amount of the cost of the relevant
56	56	damages sustained by the applicant as a result of the disaster,
57	57	based on a preliminary damage assessment conducted by the applicant
58	58	or other relevant information;
59	59	(3) a certification of the applicant's exhaustion of
60	60	local effort, including evidence of an applicant's uninsured
61	61	losses, anticipated revenues and expenditures, and projected
62	62	losses in local revenue as a result of the disaster;
63	63	(4) evidence that the applicant is located in a county
64	64	for which the countywide loss threshold has been exceeded because
65	65	of the declared disaster, as calculated using the Federal Emergency
66	66	Management Agency's countywide per capita impact indicator; and
67	67	(5) evidence that the applicant has staff, policies,
68	68	and procedures in place adequate to administer the grant.
69	69	Sec. 418.206. POST-APPLICATION PROCEDURES. (a) On receipt
70	70	of an application requesting a grant from the fund, and before
71	71	awarding money in response to the application, the division shall:
72	72	(1) substantiate the damage estimate provided by the
73	73	applicant;
74	74	(2) review the emergency management program and plan
75	75	in the jurisdiction where the applicant is located;
76	76	(3) review the information on the staff, policies, and
77	77	procedures in place to administer the grant submitted by the
78	78	applicant; and
79	79	(4) verify that the program, plan, staff, policies,
80	80	and procedures in place to administer the grant are adequate.
81	81	(b) The division shall prioritize grants and select grant
82	82	recipients based on information provided by the applicants, other
83	83	information available to the division, and criteria adopted by the
84	84	division.
85	85	Sec. 418.207. REIMBURSEMENT OF FUND. (a) An entity that
86	86	receives a grant from the fund and subsequently receives
87	87	reimbursement from the federal government, an insurer, or another
88	88	source for the costs for which the grant was awarded shall reimburse
89	89	the fund for the amounts reimbursed to the eligible entity.
90	90	(b) The division shall prescribe accounting and other
91	91	procedures as necessary to ensure that the fund is reimbursed as
92	92	provided by Subsection (a).
93	93	SECTION 2. Notwithstanding Section 614.104, Government
94	94	Code, the comptroller shall transfer $30 million from the volunteer
95	95	fire department assistance fund account in the general revenue fund
96	96	to the disaster recovery fund account created by this Act. The
97	97	transfer of money required by this section may not be considered for
98	98	purposes of an assessment under Section 2007.002, Insurance Code.
99	99	SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
100	100	a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
101	101	provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
102	102	Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
103	103	Act takes effect September 1, 2015.