I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4830 
To require the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
to quickly and fairly address the abundance of surplus temporary housing 
units stored by the Federal Government across the Nation at taxpayer 
expense. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 18, 2007 
Mr. ROSS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Transportation and Infrastructure 
A BILL 
To require the Administrator of the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency to quickly and fairly address the 
abundance of surplus temporary housing units stored 
by the Federal Government across the Nation at tax-
payer expense. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; DEFINITIONS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘FEMA Accountability Act of 2007’’. 
(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act, the following defini-
tions apply: 
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(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-
trator’’ means the Administrator of FEMA. 
(2) FEMA.—The term ‘‘FEMA’’ means the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) more than 19,000 temporary housing units 
purchased by FEMA sit unused at a storage site lo-
cated in Hope, Arkansas, and FEMA spends 
$25,000 each month to store these temporary hous-
ing units; 
(2) FEMA purchased these temporary housing 
units to aid disaster victims during the 2005 hurri-
cane season; 
(3) FEMA spends in excess of $3,000,000 each 
year to store, secure, and maintain temporary hous-
ing units at 17 storage sites across the Nation; 
(4) it is anticipated that the number of tem-
porary housing units in FEMA inventory will con-
tinue to increase as disaster victims find permanent 
housing; 
(5) many of the unused temporary housing 
units currently in the FEMA inventory are not mis-
sion-ready or may contain elevated levels of form-
aldehyde; and 
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(6) FEMA has had ample time to assess the 
need for on-hand temporary housing units. 
SEC. 3. STORAGE, SALE, TRANSFER, AND DISPOSAL OF 
HOUSING UNITS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 3 months after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall 
complete an assessment of the number of temporary hous-
ing units purchased by FEMA that the Administrator 
finds necessary to stock to respond to major disasters oc-
curring after the date of enactment of this Act. 
(b) PLAN.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than 6 months 
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Adminis-
trator shall establish a plan for— 
(A) permanently storing the temporary 
housing units that the Administrator finds nec-
essary to stock under subsection (a); 
(B) selling, transferring, or otherwise dis-
posing of the temporary housing units that the 
Administrator finds are in excess of the number 
that the Administrator finds necessary to stock 
under subsection (a) and are in usable condi-
tion; and 
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(C) disposing of the temporary housing 
units that the Administrator finds are not in 
usable condition. 
(2) EXCEPTION.— 
(A) IN
GENERAL.—If the Administrator 
submits to Congress a written certification that 
the Administrator is unable to determine the 
safe level of exposure to formaldehyde for pur-
poses of travel trailers, the Administrator may 
exclude from the plan established under para-
graph (1) any travel trailer that the Adminis-
trator determines may contain formaldehyde. 
(B) DURATION.—The authority to exclude 
travel trailers under this paragraph shall termi-
nate on the date on which the Environmental 
Protection Agency or other appropriate depart-
ment or agency promulgates regulations regard-
ing exposure levels for formaldehyde that are 
applicable to travel trailers. 
(3) APPLICABILITY
OF
DISPOSAL
REQUIRE-
MENTS.—The plan established under paragraph (1) 
shall be subject to the requirements of section 
408(d)(2) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 
and 
Emergency 
Assistance 
Act 
(42 
U.S.C. 
5174(d)(2)) and other applicable provisions of law. 
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(c) IMPLEMENTATION.—Not later than 9 months 
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator 
shall implement the plan described in subsection (b). 
(d) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date 
of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit 
to Congress a report on the status of the distribution, sale, 
transfer, or other disposal of the unused temporary hous-
ing units purchased by FEMA. 
Æ 
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