U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

1 

" ! SENATE 110TH CONGRESS

2d Session 

REPORT

2008

110–453 

Calendar No. 951 

FEMA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2008 

R E P O R T 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

TO ACCOMPANY

S. 2382 

TO REQUIRE THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY 

MANAGEMENT AGENCY TO QUICKLY AND FAIRLY ADDRESS THE 

ABUNDANCE OF SURPLUS MANUFACTURED HOUSING UNITS 

STORED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AROUND THE COUNTRY AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE 

SEPTEMBER 11, 2008.—Ordered to be printed 


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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman 

CARL LEVIN, Michigan 

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana 

BARACK OBAMA, Illinois 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine 

TED STEVENS, Alaska 

GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio 

NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota 

TOM COBURN, Oklahoma 

PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico 

JOHN WARNER, Virginia 

JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire 

MICHAEL L. ALEXANDER, Staff Director 

KEVIN J. LANDY, Chief Counsel 

MARY BETH SCHULTZ, Counsel 

KRISTIN T. SHARP, Staff Director, Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector 

Preparedness and Integration 

BRANDON L. MILHORN, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

ASHA A. MATHEW, Minority Senior Counsel 

TRINA DRIESSNACK TYRER, Chief Clerk 


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(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

I. Purpose and Summary .................................................................................. 1 

II. Background and Need for the Legislation ................................................... 1 

III. Legislative History ......................................................................................... 2 

IV. Section by Section Analysis .......................................................................... 2 

V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact .................................................................. 3 

VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate ................................................ 3 

VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported ........................... 4 


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1 E-mail from Legislative Affairs, FEMA, to Majority Staff, Subcommittee on State, Local, and 

Private Sector Preparedness and Integration (October 19, 2007). 

Calendar No. 951 

110TH CONGRESS REPORT " ! SENATE 2d Session 110–453 

FEMA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2008 

SEPTEMBER 11, 2008.—Ordered to be printed 

Mr. LIEBERMAN, from the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs, submitted the following 

REPORT 

[To accompany S. 2382] 

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 

having considered the bill S. 2382 to require the Administrator of 

the Federal Emergency Management Agency to quickly and fairly 

address the abundance of surplus manufactured housing units 

stored by the Federal Government around the country at taxpayer 

expense, reports favorably thereon with an amendment and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass. 

I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

The purpose of this legislation is to require FEMA to develop a 

plan for the storage, disposal, transfer, or sale of excess temporary 

housing units in the disaster housing program in order to reduce 

the expense of storing excessive numbers of temporary housing 

units. 

II. BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR THE LEGISLATION

In response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA purchased 

approximately 143,000 temporary housing units, including travel 

trailers, park models, and mobile homes. Some were purchased 

from dealer lots and others specially-produced through contractors. 

Prices ranged from $12,000 to $36,000 per unit, not including 

transportation, storage, installation, and other operational costs.1

They were delivered to hurricane victims beginning September 

2005. Since that time, FEMA has stored temporary housing units 

for use in future disasters. In addition, many units used in reVerDate Aug 31 2005 05:19 Sep 13, 2008 Jkt 069010 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6659 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\SR453.XXX SR453

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2 E-mail from Legislative Affairs, FEMA, to Majority Staff, Subcommittee on State, Local, and 

Private Sector Preparedness and Integration (June 24, 2008). 3 Id. 

4 Id. 

sponse to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have been returned to 

FEMA as residents have found other housing solutions. 

As of June 23, 2008, FEMA stored more than 112,000 temporary 

housing units at 21 staging sites across the country. Of these units, 

nearly 108,000 were unusable either because they could not be prepared to house disaster victims within twenty-four hours or because it was not economically feasible to make necessary improvements to the units due to high formaldehyde levels or decay.2 The 

three largest storage sites are located in Lottie, Louisiana; Hope, 

Arkansas; and Columbus, Mississippi. These sites contain approximately 25,600, 18,500, and 11,700 unusable temporary housing 

units, respectively.3 By FEMA’s calculation, each unit costs approximately $1,000 per year to store and maintain, resulting in an 

annual federal expenditure of $130 million, $92 million of which 

goes towards the maintenance of the unusable units.4 Given these 

expenses, the Committee believes it is important that FEMA develop and implement a plan for storing an appropriate number of 

housing units to enable FEMA to be prepared for future disasters 

and for transferring, selling or disposing of excess or unusable 

units in order to save taxpayer dollars. 

III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

S. 2382 was introduced by Senator Mark Pryor on November 16, 

2007 and was referred to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. 

On June 25, 2008, the Committee considered S. 2382. The Committee adopted one amendment. This amendment in the nature of 

a substitute offered by Senator Pryor made minor modifications to 

the bill. This amendment was adopted by voice vote. By a voice 

vote, the Committee ordered the bill as amended favorably reported 

to the full Senate. The Senators present for the voice vote were 

Senators Lieberman, Akaka, Carper, Pryor, McCaskill, Collins, 

Coleman, Coburn, and Sununu. 

IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

Section 1. Short title; Definitions 

This section of the bill defines ‘‘Administrator’’, ‘‘FEMA’’, and 

‘‘major disaster’’. 

Section 2. Storage, sale, transfer, and disposal of housing units 

Subsection (a) requires FEMA, within three months of enactment, to determine the appropriate number of temporary housing 

units FEMA needs to store in order to be prepared for future disasters, and to establish criteria for determining whether the stored 

units are in usable condition, which shall include establishing appropriate criteria for formaldehyde testing. 

Subsection (b) requires FEMA, within six months of enactment, 

to establish a plan for: (1) storing the number of housing units the 

Administrator has determined are necessary for FEMA to be prepared for future disasters; (2) transferring, selling, or otherwise 


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disposing of excess usable units; and (3) disposing of unusable 

units. 

Subsection (c) requires FEMA to implement this plan within nine 

months of enactment. 

Subsection (d) requires FEMA, within one year of enactment, to 

submit a report to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security 

and Governmental Affairs and to appropriate committees in the 

House of Representatives on the status of the distribution, transfer, 

sale, or other disposal of the unused temporary housing units. 

V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

Pursuant to the requirement of paragraph 11(b)(1) of rule XXVI 

of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has considered 

the regulatory impact of this bill. CBO states that the bill contains 

no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the 

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on 

state, local, or tribal governments. 

VI. ESTIMATED COST OF LEGISLATION

JULY 7, 2008. 

Hon. JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, 

Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. 

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Congressional Budget Office has prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 2382, the FEMA Accountability Act of 2008. 

If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be pleased 

to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Daniel Hoople. 

Sincerely, 

PETER R. ORSZAG. 

Enclosure. 

S. 2382—FEMA Accountability Act of 2008 

CBO estimates that implementing S. 2382 would have no significant net cost over the next 10 years. Enacting this legislation 

would not have a significant impact on net direct spending and 

would not affect revenues. 

S. 2382 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would 

not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments. 

S. 2382 would direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to develop and implement a plan to dispose of temporary housing units (for example, mobile homes and travel trailers) that are in excess of current and future needs or are determined to be unusable. CBO estimates that developing such a plan 

would cost less than $500,000 in 2009, assuming the availability of 

appropriated funds. 

Under current law, FEMA disposes of temporary housing units 

that the agency determines are in excess of its needs through the 

General Services Administration. Units are first offered for sale to 

current occupants. Thereafter, units may be sold to the general 

public or donated to state and local governments for the purposes 

of providing temporary housing to victims of a disaster. Sales proceeds may be retained by FEMA if used to purchase similar propVerDate Aug 31 2005 05:19 Sep 13, 2008 Jkt 069010 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6659 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\SR453.XXX SR453

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erty or deposited in the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts. CBO 

cannot predict whether any additional units would be sold or otherwise disposed of as a result of this legislation; however, CBO expects that the net budgetary effect of any sales would probably be 

insignificant. 

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Daniel Hoople. This 

estimate was approved by Peter H. Fontaine, Assistant Director for 

Budget Analysis. 

VIII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

Because this legislation would not repeal or amend any provision 

of current law, it would make no changes in existing law within the 

meaning of clauses (a) and (b) of paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the 

Standing Rules of the Senate. 

Æ 


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