II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 270
To establish a Commission on Federal Natural Disaster Resilience and Recov-
ery to examine and recommend reforms to improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of the Federal Government’s approach to natural disaster
resilience and recovery, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY28, 2025
Mr. L
ANKFORDintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To establish a Commission on Federal Natural Disaster Re-
silience and Recovery to examine and recommend reforms
to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal
Government’s approach to natural disaster resilience and
recovery, 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 ‘‘Natural Disaster Resil-4
ience and Recovery Accountability Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. COMMISSION ON FEDERAL NATURAL DISASTER RE-1
SILIENCE AND RECOVERY. 2
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) C
OMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 4
means the Commission on Federal Natural Disaster 5
Resilience and Recovery established under subsection 6
(b). 7
(2) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 8
the Director of the Office. 9
(3) N
ATURAL DISASTER.—The term ‘‘natural 10
disaster’’ means— 11
(A) a weather event relating to cold or hot 12
weather, flood, earthquake, tornado, hurricane, 13
or ice storm; and 14
(B) an event meeting such other criteria as 15
the Commission may determine appropriate. 16
(4) O
FFICE.—The term ‘‘Office’’ means the Of-17
fice of Management and Budget. 18
(b) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established within 19
the Office a Commission on Federal Natural Disaster Re-20
silience and Recovery. 21
(c) D
UTIES.—The duties of the Commission shall be 22
to examine and recommend administrative and legislative 23
reforms to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and budg-24
et funding of programs and activities of Federal agencies 25
supporting natural disaster resilience and recovery. 26
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(d) MEMBERSHIP.— 1
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Commission shall be 2
composed of 15 members appointed by the Direc-3
tor— 4
(A) of which 1 shall be an employee of the 5
Office; and 6
(B) the remainder of which, to the extent 7
practicable— 8
(i) shall be an official, emergency 9
manager, or emergency response provider 10
from a State, local, or Tribal government, 11
the private sector, or a nongovernmental 12
organization; 13
(ii) shall represent multiple geo-14
graphic (including urban and rural) areas; 15
and 16
(iii) may include— 17
(I) individuals from the emer-18
gency management field and emer-19
gency response providers, including 20
fire service, law enforcement, haz-21
ardous materials response, emergency 22
medical services, and emergency man-23
agement personnel, or organizations 24
representing such individuals; 25
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(II) health scientists, emergency 1
and inpatient medical providers, and 2
public health professionals; 3
(III) experts from the Federal 4
Government and State, local, and 5
Tribal governments and the private 6
sector that represent standards-set-7
ting and accrediting organizations, in-8
cluding representatives from the vol-9
untary consensus codes and standards 10
development community, particularly 11
individuals with expertise in the emer-12
gency preparedness and response 13
field; 14
(IV) State, local, and Tribal gov-15
ernmental officials with expertise in 16
preparedness, protection, response, re-17
covery, and mitigation, including adju-18
tants general; 19
(V) elected State, local, and Trib-20
al governmental executives; 21
(VI) experts in public and private 22
sector infrastructure protection, cyber-23
security, and communications; 24
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(VII) representatives of individ-1
uals with disabilities and other popu-2
lations with special needs; and 3
(VIII) such other individuals as 4
the Director determines appropriate. 5
(2) E
XPERTISE.—In making appointments 6
under paragraph (1), the Director shall give consid-7
eration to individuals with expertise in— 8
(A) natural disaster resilience and recov-9
ery; 10
(B) emergency management at the Fed-11
eral, State, local, territorial or Tribal level; 12
(C) critical infrastructure; 13
(D) transportation; 14
(E) housing; and 15
(F) intergovernmental relations. 16
(3) A
PPOINTMENT DEADLINE .—All appoint-17
ments to the Commission shall be made not later 18
than 120 days after the date of enactment of this 19
Act. 20
(4) C
HAIR AND VICE CHAIR.—The Commission 21
shall have a chair and vice chair. The chair shall be 22
a member of the Commission elected by an affirma-23
tive vote of not less than 8 members of the Commis-24
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sion, and the vice chair shall be the Commission 1
member who is an employee of the Office. 2
(5) C
OMPENSATION.— 3
(A) I
N GENERAL.—A member of the Com-4
mission who is not an officer or employee of the 5
Federal Government— 6
(i) shall not be considered a Federal 7
employee for any purpose other than for 8
purposes of— 9
(I) chapter 81 of title 5, United 10
States Code (relating to compensation 11
for injury); and 12
(II) sections 2671 through 2680 13
of title 28, United States Code, (relat-14
ing to tort claims); and 15
(ii) shall be allowed travel expenses, 16
including per diem in lieu of subsistence, 17
at rates authorized for employees of agen-18
cies under subchapter I of chapter 57 of 19
title 5, United States Code, while away 20
from their homes or regular places of busi-21
ness in the performance of services for the 22
Commission. 23
(B) F
EDERAL EMPLOYEES .—A member of 24
the Commission who is an officer or employee 25
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of the Federal Government shall not receive any 1
additional compensation for service as such a 2
member. 3
(e) A
DMINISTRATION.— 4
(1) M
EETINGS.— 5
(A) F
IRST MEETING.—The Commission 6
shall first meet not later than 240 days after 7
the date of the enactment of this Act. 8
(B) O
THER MATTERS.—The Commission 9
may, for the purpose of carrying out this Act, 10
meet virtually or in-person to hold hearings, sit 11
and act at times and places, take testimony, 12
and receive evidence as the Commission con-13
siders appropriate. 14
(2) E
XECUTIVE BRANCH ASSISTANCE .—The 15
heads of the following Federal agencies shall advise 16
and consult with the Commission on matters within 17
the respective areas of responsibility of the Federal 18
agency: 19
(A) The Small Business Administration. 20
(B) The Department of Agriculture. 21
(C) The Department of Homeland Secu-22
rity. 23
(D) The Department of Labor. 24
(E) The Department of the Interior. 25
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(F) The Department of Energy. 1
(G) The Department of Transportation. 2
(H) The Department of Housing and 3
Urban Development. 4
(I) The Environmental Protection Agency. 5
(J) The Department of Justice. 6
(K) The Federal Emergency Management 7
Agency. 8
(L) The United States Army Corps of En-9
gineers. 10
(M) The Corporation for National and 11
Community Service. 12
(N) The Department of Commerce. 13
(O) The Department of the Treasury. 14
(P) The Office. 15
(Q) Any other Federal agency, as deter-16
mined by the Commission. 17
(3) I
NFORMATION FROM FEDERAL AGENCIES .— 18
The Commission may request from any Federal 19
agency such information as the Commission con-20
siders necessary to carry out its duties. Upon re-21
quest of the chair of the Commission, the head of a 22
Federal agency shall furnish such information to the 23
Commission. 24
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(4) POSTAL SERVICES.—The Commission may 1
use the United States mails in the same manner and 2
under the same conditions as other departments and 3
agencies of the Federal Government. 4
(5) R
ULES OF PROCEDURE .—The chair and 5
vice chair of the Commission shall, with an affirma-6
tive vote of not less than 8 members of the Commis-7
sion, establish written rules of procedure for the 8
Commission, which shall include a quorum require-9
ment to conduct official business. 10
(6) S
TAFF.— 11
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The chair of the Com-12
mission may, without regard to the civil service 13
laws and regulations, appoint and terminate 14
support personnel as may be necessary to en-15
able the Commission to perform the duties of 16
the Commission. 17
(B) E
XECUTIVE DIRECTOR.—The Commis-18
sion, by an affirmative vote of not less than 8 19
members of the Commission, shall appoint an 20
executive director of the Commission. 21
(C) C
OMPENSATION.—The chair of the 22
Commission may fix the compensation of the 23
executive director and other personnel without 24
regard to chapter 51 and subchapter III of 25
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chapter 53 of title 5, United States Code, relat-1
ing to classification of positions and General 2
Schedule pay rates, except that the rate of pay 3
for the executive director and other personnel 4
may not exceed the rate payable for level V of 5
the Executive Schedule under section 5316 of 6
such title. 7
(D) D
ETAIL OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOY -8
EES.—A Federal Government employee may be 9
detailed to the Commission, without reimburse-10
ment, and such detail shall be without interrup-11
tion or loss of civil service status or privilege. 12
(f) R
EPORTS.— 13
(1) F
INAL REPORT.—Not later than 2 years 14
after the date of the first meeting of the Commis-15
sion, the Commission shall submit to the Committee 16
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of 17
the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and 18
Government Reform of the House of Representatives 19
a report describing recommendations to improve the 20
Federal Government’s approach to natural disaster 21
resilience and recovery. Such report shall include the 22
following: 23
(A) Specific and actionable policy rec-24
ommendations, including legislative rec-25
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ommendations, as applicable, to improve the ef-1
fectiveness of the Federal approach to natural 2
disaster resilience and recovery, including con-3
sideration of the 11 options presented in the re-4
port of the Government Accountability Office 5
entitled ‘‘Disaster Recovery: Actions Needed to 6
Improve the Federal Approach’’, issued on No-7
vember 15, 2022 (GAO–23–104956). 8
(B) A comprehensive review all federally 9
funded activities, Federal financial assistance 10
and grants, and Federal agency programs re-11
lated to natural disaster resilience and recovery 12
using, to the extent practical, data systems and 13
metrics consistently across the Federal agen-14
cies, including budget information and the Fed-15
eral program inventory established under sec-16
tion 1122(a)(2)(B)(i) of title 31, United States 17
Code, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of 18
such activities and programs to meet estab-19
lished goals and statutory requirements. 20
(C) A complete list of all federally funded 21
natural disaster resilience and recovery pro-22
grams and activities and prior funding informa-23
tion, program goals, statutory authority of such 24
programs and activities with relevant law cita-25
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tions, and reference to related financial assist-1
ance and grant programs. 2
(D) Consideration of potential administra-3
tive changes to the roles and responsibilities of 4
the various Federal agencies involved in natural 5
disaster resilience and recovery. 6
(E) Policies that aim to improve the effi-7
ciency and effectiveness of the Federal Govern-8
ment’s approach to natural disaster resilience 9
and recovery, to increase the access and efficacy 10
of respective Federal programs to all impacted 11
individuals and entities, and to recommend ap-12
propriate investments in natural disaster resil-13
ience to reduce duplication and inefficiency. 14
(F) Other areas of natural disaster resil-15
ience and recovery that are not described in this 16
section, as determined by the Commission. 17
(2) S
PECIFIC POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS .—To 18
the maximum extent practicable, the report under 19
paragraph (1) shall include specific short-term and 20
long-term legislative and administrative policy rec-21
ommendations. 22
(3) I
NTERIM REPORTS.—Not later than 180 23
days after the date of enactment of this Act, and 24
every 180 days thereafter, the Commission shall sub-25
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mit to the Committee on Homeland Security and 1
Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Com-2
mittee on Oversight and Government Reform of the 3
House of Representatives an interim report relating 4
to any matter described in paragraph (1). 5
(g) T
ERMINATION.—The Commission shall terminate 6
on the date that is 60 days after the date on which the 7
Commission submits the report required under subsection 8
(f)(1). 9
(h) U
SE OFAPPROPRIATIONS.—Amounts used to 10
carry out this section shall be derived solely from amounts 11
otherwise appropriated to the Office, and no additional 12
funds are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this 13
Act. 14
Æ
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