U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

1 

79–010 

" ! SENATE 111th Congress 

1st Session 

REPORT

2009

111–23 

Calendar No. 69 

FEMA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2009 

R E P O R T 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

TO ACCOMPANY

S. 713 

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 

JUNE 1, 2009.—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 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

ROLAND W. BURRIS, Illinois 

MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado 

SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine 

TOM COBURN, Oklahoma 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio 

JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada 

LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina 

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 MATHEW, Minority Senior Counsel 

TRINA DRIESSNACK TYRER, Chief Clerk 


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Calendar No. 69 

111th Congress SENATE REPORT " ! 1st Session 111–23 

FEMA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2009 

JUNE 1, 2009.—Ordered to be printed 

Mr. LIEBERMAN, from the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs, submitted the following 

R E P O R T 

[To accompany S. 713] 

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 

to which was referred the bill (S. 713) 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, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon 

with an amendment and recommends that the bill, as amended, do 

pass. 

CONTENTS 

Page 

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

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

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

IV. Section by Section Analysis .......................................................................... 3 

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

VI. Estimated Cost of Legislation ....................................................................... 3 

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

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 


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

Private Sector Preparedness and Integration (April 29, 2009). 3 Id. 

4 Id. 

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

from dealer lots and others were manufactured by contractors. 

FEMA paid from $12,000 to $36,000 for each unit, not including 

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

Hurricane victims started receiving the units in September 2005. 

Since that time, FEMA has stored temporary housing units for use 

in future disasters. In addition, many units used in response to 

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have been returned to FEMA as residents have found other housing solutions. 

As of April 29, 2009, FEMA was storing more than 120,500 temporary housing units at 15 staging and storage sites across the 

country. The vast majority—over 118,000 of them—are unusable 

for housing because it is 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 Melville, Louisiana. These sites contain approximately 25,300, 18,500, and 18,000 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. 713 was introduced on March 26, 2009 by Senator Mark Pryor 

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

On April 1, 2009, the Committee considered S. 713. The Committee adopted one amendment. This amendment was offered by 

Senator Landrieu and changed the wording of the last sentence of 

the bill from ‘‘* * * other disposal of the unused temporary housing units purchased by FEMA’’ to ‘‘* * * other disposal of the temporary housing units under this section’’ to clarify that the report 

was to cover the disposal of all of the temporary housing units 

under this section and not just the unused temporary housing 

units. The Committee adopted the amendment by voice vote and 

then, also by voice vote, ordered the bill as amended favorably reported to the full Senate. The Senators present for the voice vote 

were Senators Lieberman, Akaka, Carper, Pryor, Tester, Burris, 

Bennet, Collins, Coburn, and Voinovich. 

Except for technical changes and the Landrieu amendment, S. 

713 is identical to S. 2382, introduced in the 110th Congress. S. 

2382 was introduced by Senator Pryor on November 16, 2007, and 

reported favorably by voice vote by the Senate Homeland Security 

and Governmental Affairs Committee on June 25, 2008 with an 


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amendment in the nature of a substitute. It passed the Senate with 

an amendment that added the definition of ‘‘emergency’’ and made 

some technical corrections by unanimous consent on September 11, 

2008. On September 29, 2008 the House Committee of Transportation and Infrastructure discharged S. 2382 as amended and the 

House of Representatives considered it by unanimous consent and 

passed it without objection. The amendment added on other legislation not originally included in S. 2382, and unrelated to the subject 

of S. 2382. S. 2382, as amended by the House of Representatives 

did not pass the Senate. 

IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

Section 1. Short title; definitions 

This section of the bill defines ‘‘Administrator,’’ ‘‘FEMA,’’ ‘‘emergency,’’ and ‘‘major disaster.’’ 

Section 2. Transfer, storage, sale, 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 

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 temporary housing units under this section. 

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

APRIL 3, 2009. 

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. 713, the FEMA Accountability Act of 2009. 


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

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

Sincerely, 

DOUGLAS W. ELMENDORF. 

Enclosure. 

S. 713—FEMA Accountability Act of 2009 

CBO estimates that implementing S. 713 would have no significant net cost over the next 10 years. Enacting this legislation 

would not affect direct spending or revenues. 

S. 713 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. 713 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 

the agency determines to be unusable or in excess of current or future needs. CBO estimates that developing such a plan would cost 

less than $500,000 in 2009 and 2010, assuming the availability of 

appropriated funds. 

Under current law, FEMA disposes of excess housing units 

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. Proceeds may be retained by FEMA to cover sale costs or to 

purchase similar property. Otherwise, funds are deposited into 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, we expect that the net budgetary 

effect of any action would likely be insignificant. 

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

estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis. 

VII. 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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