I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 760
To make certain repairs, replacements, and restorations of private roads
and bridges eligible for reimbursement under the Robert T. Stafford
Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY28, 2025
Mr. E
DWARDS(for himself, Mr. DAVISof North Carolina, and Mr. MOORE
of North Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
A BILL
To make certain repairs, replacements, and restorations of
private roads and bridges eligible for reimbursement
under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-
gency Assistance Act, 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 ‘‘Restoring Access to 4
Mountain Homes Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. REIMBURSEMENT FOR REPAIR, REPLACEMENT, 1
AND RESTORATION WORK ON PRIVATE 2
ROADS AND BRIDGES IMPACTED BY TROP-3
ICAL STORM HELENE. 4
(a) E
LIGIBILITY FORREIMBURSEMENT.—Notwith-5
standing any provision of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 6
Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et 7
seq.) or the regulations governing the public assistance 8
program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency 9
under such Act, the State, Indian Tribal, and local govern-10
ments in North Carolina covered under major disaster 11
declaration FEMA–4827–DR–NC (relating to Tropical 12
Storm Helene) shall be eligible for reimbursement for the 13
cost of repairs, replacements, or restoration to private 14
roads and bridges, without regard to pre-existing condi-15
tion, under section 428 of such Act that— 16
(1) are used as the sole means of access to pri-17
mary residences or essential community services; 18
(2) are significantly damaged or destroyed as a 19
direct result of Tropical Storm Helene as identified 20
in FEMA–4827–DR–NC; and 21
(3) does not duplicate work that has already 22
been completed. 23
(b) C
ONDITIONS OFREIMBURSEMENT.—Reimburse-24
ment under this section shall be subject to the following 25
conditions: 26
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(1) Private roads or bridges shall be inspected 1
by appropriate State, Indian Tribal, or local govern-2
ment officials or their designees to verify the scope, 3
need, and cost-effectiveness of any mitigation meas-4
ures for the proposed repair, replacement, or res-5
toration. 6
(2) The State, Indian Tribal, or local govern-7
ments requesting assistance shall ensure that the 8
private roads or bridges being repaired, replaced, or 9
restored remain open for disaster recovery activities 10
for the duration of the repair, replacement, or res-11
toration process. 12
(3) The State or Indian Tribal governments 13
shall be responsible for documenting all costs associ-14
ated with repairs, replacements, or restorations with-15
in their jurisdiction in accordance with Federal 16
Emergency Management Agency policy. 17
(4) The State, Indian Tribal, or local govern-18
ment applying for public assistance funding shall ob-19
tain authority or permission to perform the work to 20
permanently repair, replace, or restore the private 21
roads and bridges. 22
(5) The State, Indian Tribal, or local govern-23
ment applying for public assistance funding shall en-24
sure the work under this section is performed in 25
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compliance with all applicable State and Federal 1
regulations and requirements that pertain to work 2
that is permanent in nature. 3
(c) D
UPLICATION OFBENEFITS.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any individual or household 5
that has received assistance prior to the date of en-6
actment of this section pursuant to section 408 of 7
the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-8
gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5174) for the pur-9
poses of repairing a private road or bridge eligible 10
under this section may proceed with such repairs or 11
return any such assistance to have such repair eligi-12
ble pursuant to this section. 13
(2) C
ALCULATION.—In the event the individual 14
or household chooses to proceed with such repairs 15
utilizing assistance provided pursuant to section 408 16
of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-17
gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5174) for a private 18
road or bridge, such assistance shall not be counted 19
against the maximum amount of assistance for such 20
individual or household under such section. 21
(d) E
LIGIBLECOSTS.—In determining eligible costs, 22
the Administrator shall base such determinations on prop-23
erly conducted and certified cost estimates prepared by 24
professionally licensed engineers (mutually agreed upon by 25
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the Administrator and the applicant). Once certified by 1
a professionally licensed engineer and accepted by the Ad-2
ministrator, the estimates on which grants made pursuant 3
to this section are based shall be presumed to be reason-4
able and eligible costs, as long as there is no evidence of 5
fraud. 6
Æ
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