I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 259
To provide for an online repository for certain reporting requirements for
recipients of Federal disaster assistance, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY10, 2023
Miss G
ONZA´LEZ-COLO´N(for herself, Ms. PLASKETT, and Ms. MALLIOTAKIS)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committees on
Small Business, and Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi-
sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To provide for an online repository for certain reporting
requirements for recipients of Federal disaster assist-
ance, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Post-Disaster Assist-4
ance Online Accountability Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. SUBPAGE FOR TRANSPARENCY OF DISASTER AS-1
SISTANCE. 2
(a) E
STABLISHMENT OF REPOSITORY FORREPORT-3
INGREQUIREMENTS.—The Director of the Office of Man-4
agement and Budget, in consultation with the Secretary 5
of the Treasury and the head of each covered Federal 6
agency, shall establish a subpage within the website estab-7
lished under section 2 of the Federal Funding Account-8
ability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 9
note) to publish the information required to be made avail-10
able to the public under this section. 11
(b) S
UBMISSION OF INFORMATION BY FEDERAL 12
A
GENCIES.—Not later than 30 days after the end of a 13
calendar quarter, each covered Federal agency that made 14
disaster assistance available to an eligible recipient during 15
such quarter shall, in coordination with the Director of 16
the Office of Management and Budget, make available to 17
the public on the subpage established under subsection (a) 18
the information described in subsection (c), and ensure 19
that any data asset of the agency is machine readable. 20
(c) I
NFORMATIONREQUIRED.—The information de-21
scribed in this subsection is, with respect to disaster as-22
sistance provided by the covered Federal agency— 23
(1) the total amount of disaster assistance pro-24
vided by the agency during such quarter; 25
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(2) the amount of disaster assistance provided 1
by the agency that was expended or obligated to 2
projects or activities; and 3
(3) a detailed list of all projects or activities for 4
which disaster assistance dispersed by the agency 5
was expended, obligated, or used, including— 6
(A) the name of the project or activity; 7
(B) a description of the project or activity; 8
(C) an evaluation of the completion status 9
of the project or activity; 10
(D) any award identification number as-11
signed to the project; 12
(E) the Catalog for Disaster Assistance 13
number assigned by the Federal Emergency 14
Management Agency; 15
(F) the location of the project, including 16
ZIP Codes; and 17
(G) any reporting requirement information 18
being collected by a covered Federal agency 19
with respect to that agency’s disaster assist-20
ance. 21
(d) G
UIDANCE.—Each covered Federal agency, in co-22
ordination with the Director of the Office of Management 23
and Budget and the Secretary of the Treasury, shall issue 24
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such guidance as is necessary to meet the requirements 1
of this Act. 2
(e) A
GREEMENTWITHPRIVATEENTITY.—The Di-3
rector, if necessary for purposes of transparency, may 4
enter into an agreement with a private entity, including 5
a nonprofit organization, to develop the subpage required 6
under this section. 7
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 8
In this Act, the following definitions apply: 9
(1) C
OVERED FEDERAL AGENCY .—The term 10
‘‘covered Federal agency’’ means— 11
(A) any agency providing assistance under 12
the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 13
Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et 14
seq.); 15
(B) the Small Business Administration; 16
and 17
(C) the Department of Housing and Urban 18
Development. 19
(2) D
ISASTER ASSISTANCE.—The term ‘‘dis-20
aster assistance’’ means any funds that are made 21
available by the Federal Government in response to 22
a specified natural disaster, including— 23
(A) any assistance provided by the Admin-24
istrator of the Small Business Administration 25
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as a result of a disaster declared under section 1
7(b) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 2
636(b)); 3
(B) any assistance provided by the Sec-4
retary of Housing and Urban Development 5
for— 6
(i) activities authorized under title I 7
of the Housing and Community Develop-8
ment Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.) 9
related to disaster relief, long-term recov-10
ery, restoration of infrastructure and hous-11
ing, and economic revitalization in the 12
most impacted and distressed areas result-13
ing from a major disaster declared pursu-14
ant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Re-15
lief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 16
U.S.C. 5121 et seq.); and 17
(ii) flood insurance coverage provided 18
under the National Flood Insurance Pro-19
gram pursuant to the National Flood In-20
surance Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 4001 et 21
seq.); and 22
(C) any assistance provided under the Rob-23
ert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 24
Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.). 25
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(3) ELIGIBLE RECIPIENT.—The term ‘‘eligible 1
recipient’’— 2
(A) means any entity that receives disaster 3
assistance directly from the Federal Govern-4
ment (including disaster assistance received 5
through grant, loan, or contract) other than an 6
individual; and 7
(B) includes a State that receives disaster 8
assistance. 9
(4) S
PECIFIED NATURAL DISASTER .—The term 10
‘‘specified natural disaster’’ means— 11
(A) a fire on public or private forest land 12
or grassland described in section 420 of the 13
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-14
gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5187); 15
(B) a major disaster declared by the Presi-16
dent under section 401 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 17
5170); 18
(C) an emergency declared by the Presi-19
dent under section 501 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 20
5191); and 21
(D) any other natural disaster for which a 22
disaster declaration is made by the Federal 23
Government. 24
Æ
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