Title: Relief for Recovering Communities Act
Policy area: Transportation and Public Works

Summary:
Relief for Recovering Communities Act
This bill requires the Department of Transportation to treat an area as an "urbanized area" following a major disaster under the Disaster Relief Act of 1974 until the second decennial census conducted after such disaster if: (1) the area was defined and designated as such by the Department of Commerce in the decennial census immediately preceding such disaster, effective with the 2000 decennial census; and (2) the population of the area fell below 50,000 as a result of such disaster. This designation as an urbanized area permits an application for federal transit funding based upon population levels in the area prior to the major disaster.
An area treated as an urbanized area shall be assigned the population and square miles of the urban cluster designated by Commerce in the most recent decennial census.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1664 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1664

To amend section 5307 of title 49, United States Code, with respect to 
   the treatment of communities as urbanized areas following a major 
                               disaster.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 27, 2017

 Mr. Cornyn (for himself and Mr. Kaine) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, 
                           and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend section 5307 of title 49, United States Code, with respect to 
   the treatment of communities as urbanized areas following a major 
                               disaster.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Relief for Recovering Communities 
Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITION OF URBANIZED AREAS FOLLOWING A MAJOR DISASTER.

    Section 5307 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following:
    ``(i) Urbanized Areas Following a Major Disaster.--
            ``(1) Defined term.--In this section, the term `major 
        disaster' has the meaning given such term in section 102(2) of 
        the Disaster Relief Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5122(2)).
            ``(2) Urbanized area major disaster population criteria.--
        Notwithstanding section 5302, the Secretary shall treat an area 
        as an `urbanized area' for purposes of this section until the 
        second decennial census conducted after a major disaster in 
        such area if--
                    ``(A) the area was defined and designated as an 
                `urbanized area' by the Secretary of Commerce in the 
                decennial census immediately preceding such major 
                disaster, effective with the 2000 decennial census; and
                    ``(B) the population of the area fell below 50,000 
                as a result of such major disaster.
            ``(3) Population calculation.--An area treated as an 
        `urbanized area' under this subsection shall be assigned the 
        population and square miles of the urban cluster designated by 
        the Secretary of Commerce in the most recent decennial census.
            ``(4) Savings provision.--Nothing in this subsection may be 
        construed to affect apportionments made under this chapter 
        before the date of the enactment of this subsection.''.
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