II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 267
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY28, 2025
Mr. B
UDD(for himself and Mr. TILLIS) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs
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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•S 267 IS
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 (42 U.S.C. 5189f) 16
that— 17
(1) are used as the sole means of access to pri-18
mary residences or essential community services; 19
(2) are significantly damaged or destroyed as a 20
direct result of Tropical Storm Helene as identified 21
in FEMA–4827–DR–NC; and 22
(3) does not duplicate work that has already 23
been completed. 24
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•S 267 IS
(b) CONDITIONS OFREIMBURSEMENT.—Reimburse-1
ment under this section shall be subject to the following 2
conditions: 3
(1) Private roads or bridges shall be inspected 4
by appropriate State, Indian Tribal, or local govern-5
ment officials or their designees to verify the scope, 6
need, and cost-effectiveness of any mitigation meas-7
ures for the proposed repair, replacement, or res-8
toration. 9
(2) The State, Indian Tribal, or local govern-10
ments requesting assistance shall ensure that the 11
private roads or bridges being repaired, replaced, or 12
restored remain open for disaster recovery activities 13
for the duration of the repair, replacement, or res-14
toration process. 15
(3) The State or Indian Tribal governments 16
shall be responsible for documenting all costs associ-17
ated with repairs, replacements, or restorations with-18
in their jurisdiction in accordance with Federal 19
Emergency Management Agency policy. 20
(4) The State, Indian Tribal, or local govern-21
ment applying for public assistance funding shall ob-22
tain authority or permission to perform the work to 23
permanently repair, replace, or restore the private 24
roads and bridges. 25
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•S 267 IS
(5) The State, Indian Tribal, or local govern-1
ment applying for public assistance funding shall en-2
sure the work under this section is performed in 3
compliance with all applicable State and Federal 4
regulations and requirements that pertain to work 5
that is permanent in nature. 6
(c) D
UPLICATION OFBENEFITS.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any individual or household 8
that has received assistance prior to the date of en-9
actment of this Act pursuant to section 408 of the 10
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 11
Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5174) for the purposes of 12
repairing a private road or bridge eligible under this 13
section may proceed with such repairs or return any 14
such assistance to have such repair eligible pursuant 15
to this section. 16
(2) C
ALCULATION.—In the event the individual 17
or household chooses to proceed with such repairs 18
utilizing assistance provided pursuant to section 408 19
of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-20
gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5174) for a private 21
road or bridge, such assistance shall not be counted 22
against the maximum amount of assistance for such 23
individual or household under such section. 24
(d) E
LIGIBLECOST.— 25
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•S 267 IS
(1) IN GENERAL.—In determining eligible costs, 1
the Administrator shall base such determinations on 2
properly conducted and certified cost estimates pre-3
pared by professionally licensed engineers (mutually 4
agreed upon by the Administrator and the appli-5
cant). 6
(2) U
SE OF ESTIMATES.—Once certified by a 7
professionally licensed engineer under paragraph (1) 8
and accepted by the Administrator, the estimates on 9
which grants made pursuant to this section are 10
based shall be presumed to be reasonable and eligi-11
ble costs, as long as there is no evidence of fraud. 12
Æ
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