I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 437
To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance
Act to expand assistance related to winter storms, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY15, 2025
Mr. K
ENNEDYof New York introduced the following 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 expand assistance related to
winter storms, 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 ‘‘Support Neighbor-4
hoods Offset Winter Damage Act of 2025’’ or the ‘‘SNOW 5
Act of 2025’’. 6
SEC. 2. WINTER STORMS. 7
(a) U
SE OFASSISTANCE FORWINTERSTORMS.— 8
Section 404 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 9
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Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170c) is amended 1
by adding at the end the following: 2
‘‘(h) U
SE OFASSISTANCE FORWINTERSTORMS.— 3
Recipients of hazard mitigation assistance provided under 4
this section and section 203 may use the assistance to con-5
duct activities to help reduce the risk of future damage, 6
hardship, loss, or suffering in any area affected by a win-7
ter storm, including acquiring equipment to remove snow. 8
‘‘(i) W
INTERSTORMDEFINED.—In this section, the 9
term ‘winter storm’ means a combination of heavy snow, 10
blowing snow, or dangerous wind chills, as determined by 11
the Administrator.’’. 12
(b) W
AIVER OFSNOWFALLMETHODOLOGY AND 13
D
AMAGESREQUIREMENT.—The Administrator of the 14
Federal Emergency Management Agency shall, by rule, es-15
tablish a process to waive the methodology related to the 16
amount of snowfall required to declare a winter storm eli-17
gible for a major disaster declaration and to waive the 18
statewide total damages required for such eligibility, if at 19
least 2 of the following conditions are met for a response 20
zone or region affected by a winter storm: 21
(1) A State emergency management agency de-22
termines in writing that the damages of such winter 23
storm exceed the damages required for such State to 24
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issue a disaster declaration for such a response zone 1
or region. 2
(2) The National Weather Service determines 3
that, during such winter storm, such a response zone 4
or region has experienced— 5
(A) wind speeds that are greater than 58 6
miles per hour and a wind chill below 0 degrees 7
Fahrenheit; or 8
(B) lake-effect snow and conditions for 9
more than 24 hours. 10
(3) The Bureau of the Census determines that 11
such a response zone or region— 12
(A) represents a population for which the 13
real median household income is below the real 14
median household income in the United States; 15
or 16
(B) is an area that is not an urban area. 17
(c) R
EGULATIONSRELATED TOWINTERSTORMS.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator of the 19
Federal Emergency Management Agency shall issue 20
such regulations, as may be necessary or appro-21
priate, as follows: 22
(A) To provide assistance for winter 23
storms authorized under sections 402, 403, 24
406, 407, 418, 419, 421(d), 502, and 503 of 25
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the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 1
Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170a, 2
5170b, 5172, 5173, 5185, 5186, 5188(d), 3
5192, 5193) related to the following: 4
(i) Debris removal. 5
(ii) Roads and bridges. 6
(iii) Water control facilities. 7
(iv) Public buildings and contents. 8
(v) Public utilities. 9
(vi) Parks, recreational, and other fa-10
cilities. 11
(B) To provide assistance for winter 12
storms authorized under sections 408 and 503 13
of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 14
Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5174, 15
5193) when the State emergency management 16
agency determines that the magnitude or esti-17
mated threat of an incident in a response zone 18
or region exceeds the capacity of the State or 19
local government (as such term is defined in 20
section 102 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 5122)) with 21
jurisdiction over such response zone or region 22
to respond or recover. 23
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 24
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(1) RESPONSE ZONE OR REGION .—The term 1
‘‘response zone or region’’ means an area that a 2
State emergency management agency has listed as a 3
response zone or region for the purpose of deter-4
mining any damages required for such State to issue 5
a disaster declaration. 6
(2) W
INTER STORM.—The term ‘‘winter storm’’ 7
has the meaning given in section 404(i) of the Rob-8
ert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency As-9
sistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170c(i)), as added by sub-10
section (a) of this section. 11
SEC. 3. FEDERAL COST SHARE. 12
The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-13
gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170 et seq.) is amend-14
ed— 15
(1) in section 403— 16
(A) by amending subsection (b) to read as 17
follows: 18
‘‘(b) F
EDERALSHARE.— 19
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Federal share of as-20
sistance under this section shall be not less than 75 21
percent of the eligible cost of such assistance. 22
‘‘(2) R
URAL OR DISADVANTAGED AREAS .—Not-23
withstanding paragraph (1), the Federal share of as-24
sistance under this section shall be not less than 90 25
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•HR 437 IH
percent of the eligible cost of such assistance in a 1
rural or disadvantaged area.’’; and 2
(B) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(e) R
URAL ORDISADVANTAGEDAREADEFINED.— 4
In this section, the term ‘rural or disadvantaged area’ 5
means an area that the Bureau of the Census has deter-6
mined— 7
‘‘(1) represents a population for which the real 8
median household income is below the real median 9
household income in the United States; or 10
‘‘(2) is not an urban area.’’; 11
(2) in section 404— 12
(A) by striking ‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The 13
President’’ and inserting the following: 14
‘‘(a) F
EDERALSHARE.— 15
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The President’’; and 16
(B) in subsection (a), by adding at the end 17
the following: 18
‘‘(2) D
ISADVANTAGED URBAN COMMUNITIES .— 19
Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the President may 20
contribute up to 90 percent of the cost of hazard 21
mitigation measures which the President has deter-22
mined are cost effective and which substantially re-23
duce the risk of, or increase resilience to, future 24
damage, hardship, loss, or suffering in a rural or 25
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disadvantaged area (as such term is defined in sec-1
tion 403) affected by a major disaster, or by a fire 2
for which assistance was provided under section 420. 3
Such measures shall be identified following the eval-4
uation of natural hazards under section 322 and 5
shall be subject to approval by the President. Sub-6
ject to section 322, the total of contributions under 7
this section for a major disaster or event under sec-8
tion 420 shall not exceed 15 percent for amounts 9
not more than $2,000,000,000, 10 percent for 10
amounts of more than $2,000,000,000 and not more 11
than $10,000,000,000, and 7.5 percent on amounts 12
of more than $10,000,000,000 and not more than 13
$35,333,000,000 of the estimated aggregate amount 14
of grants to be made (less any associated adminis-15
trative costs) under this Act with respect to the 16
major disaster or event under section 420.’’; 17
(3) by amending section 407(d) to read as fol-18
lows: 19
‘‘(d) F
EDERALSHARE.— 20
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Federal share of as-21
sistance under this section shall be not less than 75 22
percent of the eligible cost of debris and wreckage 23
removal carried out under this section. 24
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‘‘(2) RURAL OR DISADVANTAGED AREAS .—Not-1
withstanding paragraph (1), the Federal share of as-2
sistance under this section shall be not less than 90 3
percent of the eligible cost of debris and wreckage 4
removal carried out under this section in a rural or 5
disadvantaged area (as such term is defined in sec-6
tion 403).’’; and 7
(4) by amending section 503(a) to read as fol-8
lows: 9
‘‘(a) F
EDERALSHARE.— 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Federal share for as-11
sistance provided under this title shall be equal to 12
not less than 75 percent of the eligible costs. 13
‘‘(2) R
URAL OR DISADVANTAGED AREAS .—Not-14
withstanding paragraph (1), the Federal share of as-15
sistance under this title shall be not less than 90 16
percent of the eligible costs in a rural or disadvan-17
taged area (as such term is defined in section 18
403).’’. 19
Æ
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