IIB 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 255 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 26, 2023 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs 

AN ACT 

To amend the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 to 

develop a study regarding streamlining and consolidating 

information collection and preliminary damage assessments, 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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HR 255 RFS

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Disaster As3 sistance Coordination Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. STUDY TO STREAMLINE AND CONSOLIDATE INFOR5 MATION COLLECTION AND PRELIMINARY 

6 DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1223 of the Disaster Re8 covery Reform Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–254) is 

9 amended to read as follows: 

10 ‘‘SEC. 1223. STUDY TO STREAMLINE AND CONSOLIDATE IN11 FORMATION COLLECTION AND PRELIMINARY 

12 DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS. 

13 ‘‘(a) INFORMATION COLLECTION.—Not later than 2 

14 years after the date of enactment of this section, the Ad15 ministrator, in coordination with the Small Business Ad16 ministration, the Department of Housing and Urban De17 velopment, the Disaster Assistance Working Group of the 

18 Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Effi19 ciency, and other appropriate agencies, shall— 

20 ‘‘(1) conduct a study and develop a plan, con21 sistent with law, under which the collection of infor22 mation from disaster assistance applicants and 

23 grantees will be modified, streamlined, expedited, ef24 ficient, flexible, consolidated, and simplified to be 

25 less burdensome, duplicative, and time consuming 

26 for applicants and grantees; and 


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1 ‘‘(2) develop a plan for the regular collection 

2 and reporting of information on Federal disaster as3 sistance awarded, including the establishment and 

4 maintenance of a website for presenting the informa5 tion to the public. 

6 ‘‘(b) PRELIMINARY DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS.—Not 

7 later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this sec8 tion, the Administrator, in consultation with the Council 

9 of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, 

10 shall convene a working group on a regular basis with the 

11 Secretary of Labor, the Director of the Office of Manage12 ment and Budget, the Secretary of Health and Human 

13 Services, the Administrator of the Small Business Admin14 istration, the Secretary of Transportation, the Assistant 

15 Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, and 

16 other appropriate agencies as the Administrator considers 

17 necessary, to— 

18 ‘‘(1) identify and describe the potential areas of 

19 duplication or fragmentation in preliminary damage 

20 assessments after disaster declarations; 

21 ‘‘(2) determine the applicability of having one 

22 Federal agency make the assessments for all agen23 cies; and 

24 ‘‘(3) identify potential emerging technologies, 

25 such as unmanned aircraft systems, consistent with 


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1 the requirements established in the FEMA Account2 ability, Modernization and Transparency Act of 

3 2017 (42 U.S.C. 5121 note), to expedite the admin4 istration of preliminary damage assessments. 

5 ‘‘(c) COMPREHENSIVE REPORT.—The Administrator 

6 shall submit one comprehensive report that comprises the 

7 plans developed under subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) and 

8 a report of the findings of the working group convened 

9 under subsection (b), which may include recommenda10 tions, to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastruc11 ture of the House of Representatives and the Committee 

12 on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the 

13 Senate. 

14 ‘‘(d) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The comprehensive re15 port developed under subsection (c) shall be made avail16 able to the public and posted on the website of the Federal 

17 Emergency Management Agency— 

18 ‘‘(1) in pre-compressed, easily downloadable 

19 versions that are made available in all appropriate 

20 formats; and 

21 ‘‘(2) in machine-readable format, if applicable. 

22 ‘‘(e) SOURCES OF INFORMATION.—In preparing the 

23 comprehensive report, any publication, database, or web24 based resource, and any information compiled by any govVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:34 Jan 26, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H255.RFS H255

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1 ernment agency, nongovernmental organization, or other 

2 entity that is made available may be used. 

3 ‘‘(f) BRIEFING.—Not later than 180 days after sub4 mission of the comprehensive report, the Administrator of 

5 the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or a des6 ignee, and a member of the Council of the Inspectors Gen7 eral on Integrity and Efficiency, or a designee, shall brief, 

8 upon request, the appropriate congressional committees on 

9 the findings and any recommendations made in the com10 prehensive report.’’. 

11 (b) TECHNICAL AMENDMENT.—The item relating to 

12 section 1223 in the table of contents of the FAA Reau13 thorization Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–254) is amended 

14 to read as follows: 

‘‘Sec. 1223. Study to streamline and consolidate information collection and preliminary damage assessments.’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives January 25, 

2023. 

Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 

Clerk. 


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