II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 773
To amend section 324 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-
gency Assistance Act to incentivize States, Indian Tribes, and Territories
to close disaster recovery projects by authorizing the use of excess funds
for management costs for other disaster recovery projects.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Ms. H
ASSAN(for herself and Mr. LANKFORD) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Secu-
rity and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To amend section 324 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster
Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to incentivize
States, Indian Tribes, and Territories to close disaster
recovery projects by authorizing the use of excess funds
for management costs for other disaster recovery
projects.
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 ‘‘Disaster Management 4
Costs Modernization Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. USE OF EXCESS FUNDS FOR MANAGEMENT COSTS. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 324 of the Robert T. 2
Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 3
(42 U.S.C. 5165b) is amended— 4
(1) in subsection (b)(2)— 5
(A) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) 6
and (B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respectively, and 7
adjusting the margins accordingly; and 8
(B) in the matter preceding clause (i), as 9
so redesignated, by striking ‘‘provide the fol-10
lowing percentage rates’’ and inserting ‘‘pro-11
vide— 12
‘‘(A) excess funds for management costs as 13
described in subsection (c); and 14
‘‘(B) the following percentage rates’’; 15
(2) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub-16
section (d); and 17
(3) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol-18
lowing: 19
‘‘(c) U
SE OFEXCESSFUNDS FORMANAGEMENT 20
C
OSTS.— 21
‘‘(1) D
EFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 22
‘excess funds for management costs’ means the dif-23
ference between— 24
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‘‘(A) the amount of the applicable specific 1
management costs authorized under subsection 2
(b)(1) and subsection (b)(2)(B); and 3
‘‘(B) as of the date on which the grant 4
award is closed, the amount of funding for 5
management costs activities expended by the 6
grantee or subgrantee receiving the financial as-7
sistance for costs described in subparagraph 8
(A). 9
‘‘(2) A
VAILABILITY OF EXCESS FUNDS FOR 10
MANAGEMENT COSTS .—The President may make 11
available to a grantee or subgrantee receiving finan-12
cial assistance under section 403, 404, 406, 407, or 13
502 any excess funds for management costs. 14
‘‘(3) U
SE OF FUNDS.—Excess funds for man-15
agement costs made available to a grantee or sub-16
grantee under paragraph (2) may be used for— 17
‘‘(A) activities associated with building ca-18
pacity to prepare for, recover from, or mitigate 19
the impacts of a major disaster or emergency 20
declared under section 401 or 501, respectively; 21
and 22
‘‘(B) management costs associated with 23
any— 24
‘‘(i) major disaster; 25
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‘‘(ii) emergency; 1
‘‘(iii) disaster preparedness measure; 2
or 3
‘‘(iv) mitigation activity or measure 4
authorized under section 203, 204, 205, or 5
404. 6
‘‘(4) A
VAILABILITY.—Excess funds for manage-7
ment costs made available to a grantee or sub-8
grantee under paragraph (2) shall remain available 9
to the grantee or subgrantee until the date that is 10
5 years after the date on which the excess funds for 11
management costs are made available under para-12
graph (2).’’. 13
(b) A
PPLICABILITY.—The amendments made by sub-14
section (a) shall apply with respect to any grant award 15
in relation to a major disaster or emergency declared 16
under section 401 or 501, respectively, of the Robert T. 17
Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 18
(42 U.S.C. 5170, 5191)— 19
(1) the declaration of which is made on or after 20
the date of enactment of this Act; and 21
(2) that is funded with amounts appropriated 22
on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 23
(c) GAO S
TUDY.—Not later than 180 days after the 24
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 25
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of the United States shall submit to the Committee on 1
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Sen-2
ate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastruc-3
ture of the House of Representatives a report— 4
(1) on the actual management costs described 5
in section 324 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 6
Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 7
5165b) during the period of a major disaster dec-8
laration under section 401 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 9
5170) to determine whether the amount set aside for 10
those management costs after the date of enactment 11
of this Act is appropriate; and 12
(2) that includes— 13
(A) the management costs described in sec-14
tion 324 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Re-15
lief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 16
5165b) for each major disaster declared under 17
section 401 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 5170) dur-18
ing the 5-year period preceding the date of the 19
report; 20
(B) the amount set aside for those man-21
agement costs; 22
(C) the use of those management costs; 23
(D) the length of each such major disaster; 24
and 25
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(E) the reason for the length of each such 1
major disaster. 2
(d) N
OADDITIONALFUNDS.—No additional funds 3
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out the amend-4
ments made by subsection (a). 5
Æ
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