Texas 2017 - 85th Regular

Texas House Bill HB312 Compare Versions

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1	1	By: Johnson of Harris H.B. No. 312
2	2
3	3
4	4	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
5	5	AN ACT
6	6	relating to the creation and administration of a disaster recovery
7	7	fund.
8	8	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
9	9	SECTION 1. Chapter 418, Government Code, is amended by
10	10	adding Subchapter I to read as follows:
11	11	SUBCHAPTER I. DISASTER RECOVERY FUND
12	12	Sec. 418.201. PURPOSE; INTENT. It is the intent of the
13	13	legislature that in recovering from a disaster, the first recourse
14	14	of state and local governmental entities and volunteer
15	15	organizations should be to the money regularly appropriated to
16	16	those entities or money received by those entities from other
17	17	sources in the normal course of operations. Assistance grants
18	18	provided under this subchapter are intended to mitigate
19	19	extraordinary burdens of state or local governmental entities and
20	20	volunteer organizations in relation to available resources.
21	21	Sec. 418.202. DEFINITION. In this subchapter, "fund" means
22	22	the disaster recovery fund account.
23	23	Sec. 418.203. DISASTER RECOVERY FUND ACCOUNT. (a) The
24	24	disaster recovery fund is an account in the general revenue fund to
25	25	be administered by the division. Money in the fund may be
26	26	appropriated only for a grant awarded under this subchapter.
27	27	(b) The fund consists of:
28	28	(1) money credited, appropriated, or transferred to
29	29	the fund at the direction of the legislature;
30	30	(2) federal money credited or transferred to the fund;
31	31	and
32	32	(3) gifts and grants contributed to the fund.
33	33	Sec. 418.204. USE OF MONEY IN DISASTER RECOVERY FUND. The
34	34	division may award from the fund a grant to a state or local
35	35	governmental entity or a volunteer fire department that
36	36	participates in disaster recovery in an area where the governor has
37	37	declared a state of disaster to assist in the payment of the
38	38	entity's costs incurred for its recovery efforts. Money granted
39	39	from the fund may be used only for:
40	40	(1) a nonfederal match required for a Federal
41	41	Emergency Management Agency qualifying project;
42	42	(2) a disaster recovery project to remedy the public
43	43	damage and direct loss incurred as a result of a disaster; and
44	44	(3) reimbursement of the entity for costs incurred by
45	45	compensating its employees for disaster recovery-related
46	46	activities that are performed in response to the disaster and that
47	47	are outside of the scope of the employees' normal duties.
48	48	Sec. 418.205. APPLICATION FOR GRANT FROM DISASTER RECOVERY
49	49	FUND. The division shall develop and implement rules, procedures,
50	50	and an application process for an entity to request a grant from the
51	51	fund. An application for a grant must include:
52	52	(1) a description of the purposes for which the
53	53	applicant is requesting the grant assistance;
54	54	(2) an estimated amount of the cost of the relevant
55	55	damages sustained by the applicant as a result of the disaster,
56	56	based on a preliminary damage assessment conducted by the applicant
57	57	or other relevant information;
58	58	(3) a certification of the applicant's exhaustion of
59	59	local effort, including evidence of an applicant's uninsured
60	60	losses, anticipated revenues and expenditures, and projected
61	61	losses in local revenue as a result of the disaster;
62	62	(4) evidence that the applicant is located in a county
63	63	for which the countywide loss threshold has been exceeded because
64	64	of the declared disaster, as calculated using the Federal Emergency
65	65	Management Agency's countywide per capita impact indicator; and
66	66	(5) evidence that the applicant has staff, policies,
67	67	and procedures in place adequate to administer the grant.
68	68	Sec. 418.206. POST-APPLICATION PROCEDURES. (a) On receipt
69	69	of an application requesting a grant from the fund, and before
70	70	awarding money in response to the application, the division shall:
71	71	(1) substantiate the damage estimate provided by the
72	72	applicant;
73	73	(2) review the emergency management program and plan
74	74	in the jurisdiction where the applicant is located;
75	75	(3) review the information on the staff, policies, and
76	76	procedures in place to administer the grant submitted by the
77	77	applicant; and
78	78	(4) verify that the program, plan, staff, policies,
79	79	and procedures in place to administer the grant are adequate.
80	80	(b) The division shall prioritize grants and select grant
81	81	recipients based on information provided by the applicants, other
82	82	information available to the division, and criteria adopted by the
83	83	division.
84	84	Sec. 418.207. REIMBURSEMENT OF FUND. (a) An entity that
85	85	receives a grant from the fund and subsequently receives
86	86	reimbursement from the federal government, an insurer, or another
87	87	source for the costs for which the grant was awarded shall reimburse
88	88	the fund for the amounts reimbursed to the eligible entity.
89	89	(b) The division shall prescribe accounting and other
90	90	procedures as necessary to ensure that the fund is reimbursed as
91	91	provided by Subsection (a).
92	92	SECTION 2. Notwithstanding Section 614.104, Government
93	93	Code, the comptroller shall transfer $30 million from the volunteer
94	94	fire department assistance fund account in the general revenue fund
95	95	to the disaster recovery fund account created by this Act. The
96	96	transfer of money required by this section may not be considered for
97	97	purposes of an assessment under Section 2007.002, Insurance Code.
98	98	SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
99	99	a
100	100	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, 2017.