I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7671 

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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 13, 2024 

Mr. NEGUSE (for himself, Mr. D’ESPOSITO, Ms. TITUS, Mr. EZELL, and Mr. 

STANTON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Disaster Management 

5 Costs Modernization Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. USE OF EXCESS FUNDS FOR MANAGEMENT COSTS. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 324 of the Robert T. 

3 Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 

4 (42 U.S.C. 5165b) is amended— 

5 (1) in subsection (b)(2)— 

6 (A) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) 

7 and (B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respectively, and 

8 adjusting the margins accordingly; and 

9 (B) in the matter preceding clause (i), as 

10 so redesignated, by striking ‘‘provide the fol11 lowing percentage rates’’ and inserting ‘‘pro12 vide— 

13 ‘‘(A) excess funds for management costs as 

14 described in subsection (c); and 

15 ‘‘(B) the following percentage rates’’; 

16 (2) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub17 section (d); and 

18 (3) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol19 lowing: 

20 ‘‘(c) USE OF EXCESS FUNDS FOR MANAGEMENT

21 COSTS.— 

22 ‘‘(1) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 

23 ‘excess funds for management costs’ means the dif24 ference between— 


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1 ‘‘(A) the amount of the applicable specific 

2 management costs authorized under subsection 

3 (b)(1) and subsection (b)(2)(B); and 

4 ‘‘(B) as of the date on which the grant 

5 award is closed, the amount of funding for 

6 management costs activities expended by the 

7 grantee or subgrantee receiving the financial as8 sistance for costs described in subparagraph 

9 (A). 

10 ‘‘(2) AVAILABILITY OF EXCESS FUNDS FOR

11 MANAGEMENT COSTS.—The President may make 

12 available to a grantee or subgrantee receiving finan13 cial assistance under section 403, 404, 406, 407, or 

14 502 any excess funds for management costs. 

15 ‘‘(3) USE OF FUNDS.—Excess funds for man16 agement costs made available to a grantee or sub17 grantee under paragraph (2) may be used for— 

18 ‘‘(A) activities associated with building ca19 pacity to prepare for, recover from, or mitigate 

20 the impacts of a major disaster or emergency 

21 declared under section 401 or 501, respectively; 

22 and 

23 ‘‘(B) management costs associated with 

24 any— 

25 ‘‘(i) major disaster; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) emergency; 

2 ‘‘(iii) disaster preparedness measure; 

3 or 

4 ‘‘(iv) mitigation activity or measure 

5 authorized under section 203, 204, 205, or 

6 404. 

7 ‘‘(4) AVAILABILITY.—Excess funds for manage8 ment costs made available to a grantee or sub9 grantee under paragraph (2) shall remain available 

10 to the grantee or subgrantee until the date that is 

11 5 years after the date on which the excess funds for 

12 management costs are made available under para13 graph (2).’’. 

14 (b) APPLICABILITY.—The amendments made by sub15 section (a) shall apply with respect to any grant award 

16 in relation to a major disaster or emergency declared 

17 under section 401 or 501, respectively, of the Robert T. 

18 Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 

19 (42 U.S.C. 5170, 5191)— 

20 (1) the declaration of which is made on or after 

21 the date of enactment of this Act; and 

22 (2) that is funded with amounts appropriated 

23 on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 

24 (c) GAO STUDY.—Not later than 180 days after the 

25 date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 


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1 of the United States shall submit to the Committee on 

2 Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Sen3 ate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastruc4 ture of the House of Representatives a report— 

5 (1) on the actual management costs described 

6 in section 324 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 

7 Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 

8 5165b) during the period of a major disaster dec9 laration under section 401 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 

10 5170) to determine whether the amount set aside for 

11 those management costs after the date of enactment 

12 of this Act is appropriate; and 

13 (2) that includes the management costs de14 scribed in section 324 of the Robert T. Stafford Dis15 aster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 

16 U.S.C. 5165b) for each disaster declared under dur17 ing the period of a major disaster declaration under 

18 section 401 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 5170) during the 

19 5-year period preceding the date of the report, the 

20 amount set aside for those management costs, the 

21 use of those management costs, the length of each 

22 disaster, and the reason for the length of each dis23 aster. 


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1 (d) NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS.—No additional funds 

2 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out the amend3 ments made by subsection (a). 

Æ 


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