Title: Disaster Assistance Simplification Act
Policy area: Housing and Community Development

Summary:
Disaster Assistance Simplification Act
This bill addresses the interaction of disaster recovery relief assistance provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Specifically, the bill prohibits HUD and recipients of HUD disaster relief grants from (1) considering whether an applicant for assistance rejected a separate disaster loan from the SBA, or (2) reducing the amount of assistance by the amount of a rejected SBA loan.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2575 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2575

To prohibit recipients of disaster recovery relief assistance from the 
Department of Housing and Urban Development from penalizing applicants 
    that declined assistance from the Small Business Administration.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 26, 2019

Mr. Rubio (for himself, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Cornyn, 
 and Mr. Cruz) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To prohibit recipients of disaster recovery relief assistance from the 
Department of Housing and Urban Development from penalizing applicants 
    that declined assistance from the Small Business Administration.

    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 ``Disaster Assistance Simplification 
Act''.

SEC. 2. DUPLICATION OF BENEFITS FOR DISASTER RELIEF.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section--
            (1) the term ``Administration'' means the Small Business 
        Administration; and
            (2) the term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Housing 
        and Urban Development.
    (b) Prohibitions.--With respect to a grant provided to a grantee 
under title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 
U.S.C. 5301 et seq.) related to a major disaster declared by the 
President under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 
and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170), the Secretary and the 
grantee shall not--
            (1) take into consideration whether an applicant for 
        assistance from the grantee applied and was approved for, but 
        declined, assistance related to the major disaster from the 
        Administration under section 7(b) of the Small Business Act (15 
        U.S.C. 636(b)); or
            (2) reduce the amount provided to an applicant described in 
        paragraph (1) by any amount that the applicant would have 
        received from the Administration if the applicant had not 
        declined the assistance.
    (c) Application.--Subsection (b) shall apply with respect to 
applicants for assistance from a grantee under title I of the Housing 
and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.) with 
respect to a major disaster declared by the President under section 401 
of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 
(42 U.S.C. 5170) who applied for assistance from the Administration 
under section 7(b) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(b)) related 
to the major disaster before, on, or after the date of enactment of 
this Act.
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