Title: Preliminary Damage Assessment Improvement Act of 2020
Policy area: Emergency Management

Summary:
Preliminary Damage Assessment Improvement Act of 2019
This bill directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to (1) submit to Congress a report describing the preliminary damage assessment process, as carried out by FEMA in the five years before this bill's enactment; and (2) establish damage assessment teams within FEMA to conduct preliminary damage assessments with state and local governments and appropriate relief or disaster assistance organizations.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4358 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4358

To direct the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
to submit to Congress a report on preliminary damage assessment and to 
 establish damage assessment teams in the Federal Emergency Management 
                    Agency, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 17, 2019

  Mr. Katko (for himself and Mr. Cunningham) introduced the following 
    bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and 
                             Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
to submit to Congress a report on preliminary damage assessment and to 
 establish damage assessment teams in the Federal Emergency Management 
                    Agency, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Preliminary Damage Assessment 
Improvement Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Preliminary damage assessments play a critical role in 
        assessing and validating the impact and magnitude of a 
        disaster.
            (2) Through the preliminary damage assessment process, 
        representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
        work with State and local officials to gather information that 
        serves as the basis for disaster assistance requests.
            (3) Various factors can impact the duration of a 
        preliminary damage assessment and the corresponding submission 
        of a major disaster request, however, the average time between 
        when a disaster occurs, and the submission of a corresponding 
        disaster request has been found to be approximately twenty days 
        longer for flooding disasters.
            (4) With communities across the country facing increased 
        instances of catastrophic flooding and other extreme weather 
        events, accurate and efficient preliminary damage assessments 
        have become critically important to the relief process for 
        impacted states and municipalities.

SEC. 3. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency shall submit to Congress a report describing the preliminary 
damage assessment process, as carried out by the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency in the 5 years before the date of enactment of this 
Act.
    (b) Contents.--The report described in subsection (a) shall contain 
the following:
            (1) The process of the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
        for deploying disaster assessment teams to conduct preliminary 
        damage assessments.
            (2) The number of Agency staff participating on disaster 
        assessment teams.
            (3) The training and experience of such staff described in 
        paragraph (2).
            (4) A calculation of the average amount of time disaster 
        assessment teams described in paragraph (1) are deployed to a 
        disaster area.
            (5) The efforts of the Agency to maintain a consistent 
        liaison between the Agency and communities within a disaster 
        area.

SEC. 4. PRELIMINARY DAMAGE ASSESSMENT.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency shall establish damage assessment teams under section 206.33(b) 
of title 44, Code of Federal Regulations, within the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency to conduct preliminary damage assessments with State 
and local governments and appropriate relief or disaster assistance 
organizations.
    (b) Damage Assessment Teams.--Damage assessment teams described 
under subsection (a) shall consist of full-time employees of the Agency 
with expertise in working with State and local governments and 
appropriate relief or disaster assistance organizations.
    (c) Report to Congress.--Not later than 2 years after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit to Congress a 
report--
            (1) describing the establishment of disaster assessment 
        teams described under subsection (a);
            (2) assessing whether the duration of the deployment of a 
        disaster assessment team to conduct a preliminary damage 
        assessment is longer based on specific disaster conditions;
            (3) assessing the practicality of forming specific disaster 
        assessment teams for each specific disaster condition; and
            (4) legislative recommendations to improve the operation, 
        deployment, and staffing of disaster assessment teams.
    (d) Definition of State and Local Government.--For purposes of this 
Act, the terms ``State'' and ``local government'' have the meanings 
given such terms in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 
Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122).
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