I 
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4998 
To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance 
Act to protect disaster assistance employee reservists when activated 
by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for work at a specific 
disaster site from termination or demotion in their places of employment. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 16, 2006 
Ms. SCHWARTZ of Pennsylvania (for herself, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. JEFFERSON, 
Mr. HONDA, Mr. BROWN of Ohio, Mr. INSLEE, Mr. ORTIZ, Mr. BISHOP 
of New York, Mr. KANJORSKI, Mr. MURTHA, Mr. HOLDEN, Mr. FATTAH, 
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. THOMPSON of Mis-
sissippi, Mr. FARR, Mr. WU, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. STUPAK, Mr. 
KUCINICH, Mr. STARK, Mrs. MCCARTHY, Ms. LINDA T. SA´NCHEZ of 
California, and Mr. MEEHAN) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 
A BILL 
To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-
gency Assistance Act to protect disaster assistance em-
ployee reservists when activated by the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency for work at a specific disaster 
site from termination or demotion in their places of 
employment. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Disaster Assistance 
Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 2006’’. 
SEC. 2. EMPLOYMENT PROTECTIONS FOR DISASTER AS-
SISTANCE EMPLOYEE RESERVISTS. 
Section 306 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 
and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5149) is 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(c) EMPLOYMENT PROTECTIONS FOR DISASTER AS-
SISTANCE EMPLOYEE RESERVISTS.— 
‘‘(1) TERMINATION
PROHIBITED.—No person 
may be terminated, demoted, or in any other manner 
discriminated against in the terms and conditions of 
employment because the employee, when activated 
by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 
work at a specific disaster site as a disaster assist-
ance employee reservist, is absent from or late to his 
or her employment. 
‘‘(2) LIMITATION.—Paragraph (1) shall not 
apply if such person is absent from his or her em-
ployment for the purposes described in paragraph 
(1) for a period of more than 90 days per calendar 
year. 
‘‘(3) WITHHOLDING
OF
PAY.—An employer 
may charge, against the employee’s regular pay, any 
time that an employee loses from employment be-
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cause of the employee’s activation as a disaster as-
sistance employee reservist. 
‘‘(4) CERTIFICATION.—The employer may re-
quest the employee to provide the employer with a 
written verification from the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency that the employee was acti-
vated as a disaster assistance employee reservist and 
stating the time and dates of such activation. 
‘‘(5) REASONABLE NOTICE REQUIRED.—An em-
ployee who may be absent from or late to his or her 
employment due to activation as a disaster assist-
ance employee reservist shall make a reasonable ef-
fort to notify his or her employer that he or she may 
be absent or late and shall continue to provide such 
reasonable notifications over the course of his or her 
absence. 
‘‘(6) RIGHT OF ACTION.— 
‘‘(A) RIGHT OF ACTION.—A person who 
has been terminated, demoted, or in any other 
manner discriminated against in the terms and 
conditions of employment in violation of this 
subsection may bring, in a district court of the 
United States of appropriate jurisdiction, a civil 
action against his or her employer who violated 
this subsection. 
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‘‘(B) DAMAGES.—The employee may seek 
reinstatement to his or her former position, 
payment of back wages, reinstatement of fringe 
benefits, and, where seniority rights are grant-
ed, reinstatement of seniority rights. 
‘‘(C) LIMITATION.—The employee must 
commence such an action within 1 year after 
the date of the violation of this subsection. 
‘‘(7) DISASTER
ASSISTANCE
EMPLOYEE
RE-
SERVIST
DEFINED.—In this subsection, the term 
‘disaster assistance employee reservist’ means a per-
son appointed by the Federal Emergency Manage-
ment Agency under subsection (b)(1) to serve as a 
reservist. Reservists are carried on the personnel 
rolls of the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
for a specified period and may be activated to per-
form disaster assistance program work when the 
need arises.’’. 
Æ 
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