I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1760

To authorize emergency disaster assistance for recovery from the earthquakes

of January and February 2001 in the Republic of India and the Republic

of El Salvador, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 8, 2001

Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia, Mr. LANTOS, Mr.

MCDERMOTT, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, Mr. WEXLER, Ms.

SOLIS, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr. FOLEY, Mr. SHAW, Mr. HONDA, Mr.

GUTIERREZ, Mr. ORTIZ, Mr. BECERRA, Mr. PASTOR, Mr. SERRANO, Ms.

VELA ́ZQUEZ, Mr. RODRIGUEZ, Mr. REYES, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr.

HINOJOSA, Mr. UNDERWOOD, Mr. GONZALEZ, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr.

BACA, Mr. DELAHUNT, Mr. FILNER, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr.

CAPUANO, Mrs. MORELLA, Mr. KUCINICH, and Ms. PELOSI) introduced

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on International

Relations

A BILL

To authorize emergency disaster assistance for recovery from

the earthquakes of January and February 2001 in the

Republic of India and the Republic of El Salvador, and

for other purposes.

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

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Relief, Community Vi3 talization, and Emergency Readiness in India and El Sal4 vador (RECOVERIES) Act of 2001’’.

5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS.

6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find7 ings:

8 (1) In January and February of 2001, earth9 quakes in the Republic of El Salvador and the Re10 public of India killed more than 20,900 people, in11 jured more than 175,000 people, destroyed or dam12 aged 1,400,000 homes, and left 2,000,000 people

13 homeless. As many as 22,000,000 people were af14 fected by the earthquakes, amid widespread devasta15 tion to infrastructure and livelihoods.

16 (2) On January 26, 2001, India’s Republic

17 Day, the most powerful earthquake in India in 50

18 years struck the state of Gujarat. To date, 19,739

19 people have been killed, 167,000 have been injured,

20 1,112,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged,

21 600,000 people are homeless, and as many as

22 20,000,000 people overall have been affected—40

23 percent of the population of this region. To date,

24 400 aftershocks, 19 of which qualify as small earth25 quakes, have been reported.
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1 (3)(A) On January 13 and February 13, 2001,

2 powerful earthquakes struck El Salvador. Other,

3 smaller earthquakes and more than 5,000 after4 shocks have devastated the country, a nation already

5 battered by years of civil war and Hurricane Mitch

6 in 1998.

7 (B) The combined number of deaths from the

8 two earthquakes in El Salvador is 1,159, the num9 ber of injuries is 8,519, and the number of destroyed

10 or damaged homes is 334,866. Nearly 1,600,000

11 Salvadorans have been affected, almost 1 in every 4

12 of the country’s population. The equivalent in the

13 United States would be that the entire populations

14 of California, Texas, New Jersey, and the District of

15 Columbia were affected.

16 (4) The estimated cost of rebuilding El Sal17 vador is between $1,600,000,000 and

18 $2,800,000,000. Many public buildings and church19 es, and 1,700 schools (more than one in three in the

20 country) have been damaged. In some municipalities,

21 80 to 95 percent of the buildings have been de22 stroyed. More than 640 landslides have occurred,

23 blocking roads (including the Pan American High24 way) and destroying houses. The start of the rainy

25 season in early May 2001 will bring more landslides
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1 and another disaster if mitigation plans are not im2 plemented quickly.

3 (5) In Gujarat, estimated damage from the

4 January 26, 2001, earthquake is between

5 $4,600,000,000 and $5,500,000,000. According to

6 the Indian Red Cross Society, infrastructure has

7 been severely damaged, including large scale collapse

8 of buildings, mine cave-ins, train derailments, and

9 power failure that has cut off the water supply. Al10 most 24,000 schools were damaged or destroyed,

11 and up to 14,000 of them will need to be rebuilt.

12 Also lost were 3 hospitals, and many health centers.

13 Devastation from the earthquake comes on top of an

14 already existing drought. Catholic Relief Services, on

15 the ground in India for 40 years, reports that needs

16 far outstrip projected aid.

17 (6) The people of the United States and India

18 have developed a strong friendship based on mutual

19 interests and respect. India is the world’s largest de20 mocracy and shares a common bond with the United

21 States in its development as a nation. The United

22 States is India’s largest trading partner and largest

23 investor.

24 (7) The people of the United States and El Sal25 vador share strong friendship and mutual interests
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1 and respect. The United States is El Salvador’s

2 largest trading partner. El Salvador has worked

3 hard to consolidate peace and democracy after many

4 years of a difficult war, and has become an impor5 tant ally in the effort to stem the flow of illegal nar6 cotics.

7 (8) Approximately 150,000 lives are lost each

8 year through natural disasters. Statistics show that

9 97 percent of deaths from natural disasters occur in

10 developing countries. $100,000,000,000 is lost each

11 year in damages from natural disasters.

12 (9)(A) Studies show that investment in disaster

13 mitigation and preparedness pay off. In the United

14 States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency

15 reports that for every $1 spent on mitigation, at

16 least $2 are saved in costs toward reconstruction fol17 lowing disasters.

18 (B) In the developing world, savings are much

19 more dramatic. The World Bank reports that if only

20 10 percent of the costs of disaster relief and recov21 ery were instead spent on mitigation and prepared22 ness before disasters struck, a 7-fold return on in23 vestment would be seen.

24 (C) The Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance

25 of the United States Agency for International Devel-
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1 opment reports that following a 1998 flood in

2 Kinshasa, Congo, that caused $7,100,000 in dam3 ages, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance spent

4 $130,000 to cleanup and mitigate against future

5 flooding. In 1999, similar flooding hit, but the miti6 gation efforts prevented damages, saving

7 $7,000,000.

8 (10)(A) House Concurrent Resolution 15, as

9 adopted by the House of Representatives on January

10 31, 2001, and Senate Concurrent Resolution 6, as

11 adopted by the Senate on February 8, 2001, re12 solved that Congress ‘‘expresses its support for con13 tinuing and substantially increasing the amount of

14 disaster assistance being provided [to India] by the

15 United States Agency for International Development

16 (USAID) and other relief agencies’’.

17 (B) Senate Resolution 18, as adopted by the

18 Senate on February 8, 2001, ‘‘encourages a contin19 ued commitment by the United States and other

20 countries to the long-term, sustainable development

21 of El Salvador’’.

22 (C) House Concurrent Resolution 41, as adopt23 ed by the House of Representatives on March 21,

24 2001, ‘‘expresses support for continuing and sub25 stantially increasing, in connection with these earth-
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1 quakes, relief and reconstruction assistance provided

2 by relief agencies . . . including . . . the United

3 States Agency for International Development’’.

4 (11) In the wake of Hurricane Mitch, the Mitch

5 Consultative Group formulated what have become

6 known as the ‘‘Stockholm Principles’’, namely that

7 the reconstruction and transformation of the af8 fected countries should be guided by the following

9 goals and principles: (A) reduction of social and en10 vironmental vulnerability, (B) transparency and

11 good governance, (C) decentralization and civil soci12 ety participation, and (D) human rights and equal13 ity.

14 (12) Development assistance, aimed ultimately

15 toward poverty reduction, is the best mitigation

16 against catastrophic disaster.

17 (13) Nongovernmental organizations working

18 on the ground, such as CARE, Catholic Relief Serv19 ices, Habitat for Humanity International and others,

20 strive to focus on long-term sustainable development,

21 even in the midst of tragedy and immediate emer22 gency relief efforts.

23 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con24 gress that—
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1 (1) the nature and scale of the earthquake dis2 asters that recently struck El Salvador and India

3 demonstrate that these are true disaster emergencies

4 and that the United States should respond by pro5 viding emergency disaster assistance;

6 (2)(A) emergency disaster assistance programs

7 must complement and work with development assist8 ance programs in order that the two types of pro9 grams reinforce one another; and

10 (B) emergency disaster assistance programs

11 should support and not undermine the long-term

12 sustainable development efforts of nongovernmental

13 organizations already working on the ground in

14 countries that have suffered disasters; and

15 (3) as such, regular United States bilateral de16 velopment assistance funds that have been reallo17 cated in order to meet the current emergency needs

18 for relief and recovery following the earthquakes in

19 India and El Salvador should be reimbursed with

20 the funds authorized in this Act.

21 SEC. 3. EMERGENCY DISASTER ASSISTANCE FOR INDIA

22 AND EL SALVADOR.

23 (a) EMERGENCY DISASTER ASSISTANCE.—The

24 President is authorized to provide assistance under chap25 ter 9 of part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22
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1 U.S.C. 2292 et seq.; relating to international disaster as2 sistance) for recovery from the earthquakes of January

3 and February 2001 in the Republic of India and the Re4 public of El Salvador.

5 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—

6 (1) EMERGENCY DISASTER ASSISTANCE.—

7 There is authorized to be appropriated to the Presi8 dent $468,500,000 for fiscal year 2001 to carry out

9 subsection (a). Of such amount—

10 (A) not less than $117,600,000 is author11 ized to be appropriated for recovery in India;

12 (B) not less than $301,400,000 is author13 ized to be appropriated for recovery in El Sal14 vador;

15 (C) not less than $500,000 is authorized to

16 be appropriated for technical assistance to de17 velop emergency management systems in El

18 Salvador and India; and

19 (D) such sums as may be necessary are

20 authorized to be appropriated for operating ex21 penses of the United States Agency for Inter22 national Development.

23 (2) REIMBURSEMENT.—There is authorized to

24 be appropriated to the President $73,000,000 for

25 fiscal year 2001 to reimburse the appropriate devel-
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1 opment assistance accounts for amounts obligated

2 before the date of the enactment of this Act for re3 covery from the earthquakes of January and Feb4 ruary 2001 in the Republic of India and the Repub5 lic of El Salvador.

6 (3) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts appropriated pur7 suant to the authorization of appropriations under

8 paragraphs (1) and (2) are authorized to remain

9 available until expended.

10 SEC. 4. DISASTER MITIGATION ASSISTANCE FOR INDIA, EL

11 SALVADOR, AND CERTAIN OTHER COUN12 TRIES.

13 (a) DISASTER MITIGATION ASSISTANCE.—The Presi14 dent is authorized to provide assistance under chapter 9

15 of part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.

16 2292 et seq.; relating to international disaster assistance)

17 for disaster mitigation activities in the Republic of India,

18 the Republic of El Salvador, and other countries that con19 tain highly disaster-prone areas.

20 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—

21 (1) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be

22 appropriated to the President $20,000,000 for fiscal

23 year 2001 to carry out subsection (a).

24 (2) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts appropriated pur25 suant to the authorization of appropriations under
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1 paragraph (1) are authorized to remain available

2 until expended.

3 SEC. 5. DESIGNATION AS EMERGENCY REQUIREMENT.

4 All funds appropriated pursuant to the authorization

5 of appropriations under section 3(b) and section 4(b)(1)

6 are designated as an emergency requirement pursuant to

7 section 251(b)(2)(A) of the Balanced Budget and Emer8 gency Deficit Control Act of 1985.

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