I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1851 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow certain Federally 
declared disaster areas to be designated as opportunity zones for pur-
poses of economic development and recovery. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 21, 2019 
Mr. MEADOWS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow cer-
tain Federally declared disaster areas to be designated 
as opportunity zones for purposes of economic develop-
ment and recovery. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Disaster Recovery and 
Opportunity Act of 2019’’. 
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SEC. 2. TREATMENT AS OPPORTUNITY ZONES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1400Z–1 of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end 
the following new subsection: 
‘‘(g) CERTAIN DISASTER ZONES.— 
‘‘(1) DESIGNATION.—With respect to a Feder-
ally declared disaster, the chief executive officer of 
a State may designate under this paragraph not 
more than 5 percent of the applicable disaster tracts 
in such State with respect to such disaster. 
‘‘(2) NO EFFECT ON LIMITATION ON NUMBER 
OF
DESIGNATIONS.—An applicable disaster tract 
designated under paragraph (1) shall not be taken 
into account in determining the limitation under 
subsection (d). 
‘‘(3) APPLICABLE DISASTER TRACT.—The term 
‘applicable disaster tract’ means, with respect to a 
Federally declared disaster, a population census 
tract in the disaster area related to such disaster. 
‘‘(4) FEDERALLY
DECLARED
DISASTER; DIS-
ASTER AREA.—In this subsection, the term ‘Feder-
ally declared disaster’ and the term ‘disaster area’ 
have the meaning given such terms in section 165(i). 
‘‘(5) APPLICABLE START DATE.— 
‘‘(A) 
QUALIFIED
OPPORTUNITY
FUND 
BUSINESSES AND PROPERTY.—In the case of an 
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applicable disaster tract designated under para-
graph (1), subparagraphs (B)(i)(I), (C)(i), and 
(D)(i)(I) of section 1400Z–2(d)(2) shall each be 
applied by substituting ‘the applicable start 
date’ for ‘December 31, 2017’. 
‘‘(B) EXTENSION OF DETERMINATION PE-
RIOD.—In the case of an applicable disaster 
tract designated under paragraph (1), section 
(c)(2)(B) shall be applied by substituting ‘the 
applicable start date’ for ‘the date of the enact-
ment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’. 
‘‘(C) APPLICABLE START DATE.—The term 
‘applicable start date’ means, with respect to a 
disaster area, the earliest incident date specified 
in the declaration to which such area relates.’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply with respect to Federally declared 
disasters declared after the date of the enactment of this 
Act. 
Æ 
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