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[Senate Report 111-23]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

111th Congress
                                 SENATE
                                                                 Report
 1st Session                                                     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
        COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

               JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan                 SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii              TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware           JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas              GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana          JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri           LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina
JON TESTER, Montana
ROLAND W. BURRIS, Illinois
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado

                  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

                                                        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 
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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\E-mail from Legislative Affairs, FEMA, to Majority Staff, 
Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and 
Integration (October 19, 2007).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                        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 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.
    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.

                                  
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