I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2341
To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance
Act to waive certain prohibitions on duplication of benefits, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH25, 2025
Mr. R
OUZER(for himself and Mr. CARTERof Louisiana) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure
A BILL
To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-
gency Assistance Act to waive certain prohibitions on
duplication of benefits, 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 ‘‘Duplications of Bene-4
fits Victims Relief Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DUPLICATION OF BENEFITS. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.— 7
(1) A
UTHORITY.—Section 312(b) of the Robert 8
T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assist-9
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ance Act (42 U.S.C. 5155(b)) is amended by adding 1
at the end the following: 2
‘‘(4) W
AIVER OF GENERAL PROHIBITION .— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The President may 4
waive the general prohibition provided in sub-5
section (a) upon request of a Governor on be-6
half of the State or on behalf of a person, busi-7
ness concern, or any other entity suffering 8
losses as a result of a major disaster or emer-9
gency, if the President finds such waiver is in 10
the public interest and will not result in waste, 11
fraud, or abuse. In making this decision, the 12
President may consider the following: 13
‘‘(i) The recommendations of the Ad-14
ministrator of the Federal Emergency 15
Management Agency made in consultation 16
with the Federal agency or agencies ad-17
ministering the duplicative program. 18
‘‘(ii) If a waiver is granted, the assist-19
ance to be funded is cost effective. 20
‘‘(iii) Equity and good conscience. 21
‘‘(iv) Other matters of public policy 22
considered appropriate by the President. 23
‘‘(B) G
RANT OR DENIAL OF WAIVER .—A 24
request under subparagraph (A) shall be grant-25
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ed or denied not later than 45 days after sub-1
mission of such request. 2
‘‘(C) P
ROHIBITION ON DETERMINATION 3
THAT LOAN IS A DUPLICATION .—Notwith-4
standing subsection (c), in carrying out sub-5
paragraph (A), the President may not deter-6
mine that a loan is a duplication of assistance, 7
provided that all Federal assistance is used to-8
ward a loss suffered as a result of the major 9
disaster or emergency. 10
‘‘(D) P
ROHIBITION ON INCOME THRESH -11
OLD.—In carrying out this paragraph, no in-12
come threshold may be applied to limit the eli-13
gibility of a recipient from qualifying for a 14
waiver under this paragraph. 15
‘‘(E) A
PPLICABILITY.—This paragraph 16
shall apply to any major disaster or emergency 17
declared by the President under section 401 or 18
501, respectively, on or after January 1, 19
2016.’’. 20
(2) S
TATUTORY CONSTRUCTION .—This sub-21
section, including the amendment made by para-22
graph (1), shall not be construed to apply to section 23
406 or 408 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 24
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and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5172, 1
5174). 2
(3) R
EPORT.— 3
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 4
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Ad-5
ministrator of the Federal Emergency Manage-6
ment Agency, in coordination with other rel-7
evant Federal agencies, shall submit to the con-8
gressional committees of jurisdiction a report 9
conducted by all relevant Federal agencies to 10
improve the comprehensive delivery of disaster 11
assistance to individuals following a major dis-12
aster or emergency declaration under the Rob-13
ert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 14
Assistance Act. 15
(B) C
ONTENTS.—The report required 16
under subparagraph (A) shall include both ad-17
ministrative actions taken, or planned to be 18
taken, by the agencies as well as legislative pro-19
posals, where appropriate, of the following: 20
(i) Efforts to improve coordination be-21
tween the Agency and other relevant Fed-22
eral agencies when delivering disaster as-23
sistance to individuals. 24
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(ii) Clarify the sequence of delivery of 1
disaster assistance to individuals from the 2
Agency, and other relevant Federal agen-3
cies. 4
(iii) Clarify the interpretation and im-5
plementation of section 312 of the Robert 6
T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 7
Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5155) when 8
providing disaster assistance to individuals, 9
including providing a common interpreta-10
tion across the Agency, and other relevant 11
Federal agencies, of the definitions and re-12
quirements under such section 312. 13
(iv) Increase the effectiveness of com-14
munication to applicants for assistance 15
programs for individuals after a disaster 16
declaration, including the breadth of pro-17
grams available and the potential impacts 18
of utilizing one program versus another. 19
(C) R
EPORT UPDATE.—Not later than 4 20
years after the date of enactment of this sub-21
section, the Administrator, in coordination with 22
other relevant Federal agencies, shall submit to 23
the congressional committees of jurisdiction an 24
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update to the report required under subpara-1
graph (A). 2
Æ
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