Title: FEMA Loan Interest Payment Relief Act
Policy area: Emergency Management

Summary:
FEMA Loan Interest Payment Relief Act
This bill directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to reimburse local governments or electric cooperatives for interest expenses for loans pertaining to disaster relief.
Any qualifying interest incurred by a local government or electric cooperative in the five years preceding this bill's enactment shall be treated as eligible for financial assistance for purposes of this bill.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8701 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 8701

     To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 
    Assistance Act to provide for the authority to reimburse local 
  governments or electric cooperatives for interest expenses, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 30, 2020

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 
    Assistance Act to provide for the authority to reimburse local 
  governments or electric cooperatives for interest expenses, 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 ``FEMA Loan Interest Payment Relief 
Act''.

SEC. 2. REIMBURSEMENT OF INTEREST PAYMENTS RELATED TO PUBLIC 
              ASSISTANCE.

    (a) In General.--Title IV of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 
and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170 et seq.) is amended by 
adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 431. REIMBURSEMENT OF INTEREST PAYMENTS RELATED TO PUBLIC 
              ASSISTANCE.

    ``(a) In General.--The President, acting through the Administrator 
of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, shall provide financial 
assistance to a local government or electric cooperative as 
reimbursement for qualifying interest.
    ``(b) Definitions.--In this section, the following definitions 
apply:
            ``(1) Qualifying interest.--The term `qualifying interest' 
        means, with respect to a qualifying loan, the lesser of--
                    ``(A) the actual interest paid to a lender for such 
                qualifying loan; and
                    ``(B) the interest that would have been paid to a 
                lender if such qualifying loan had an interest rate 
                equal to the prime rate most recently published on the 
                Federal Reserve Statistical Release on selected 
                interest rates.
            ``(2) Qualifying loan.--The term `qualifying loan' means a 
        loan--
                    ``(A) obtained by a local government or electric 
                cooperative; and
                    ``(B) of which not less than 90 percent of the 
                proceeds are used to fund activities for which such 
                local government or electric cooperative receives 
                assistance under this Act after the date on which such 
                loan is disbursed.''.
    (b) Rule of Applicability.--Any qualifying interest (as such term 
is defined in section 431 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 
Emergency Assistance Act, as added by this Act) incurred by a local 
government or electric cooperative in the 5 years preceding the date of 
enactment of this Act shall be treated as eligible for financial 
assistance for purposes of such section.
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