Fairness in Disaster Relief Act

Bill: 116-s-3407
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Rubio, Marco [R-FL]
Introduced: 2020-03-05
Policy area: Emergency Management
Subjects: Disaster relief and insurance

Government lending and loan guarantees

Interest, dividends, interest rates

State and local finance

State and local government operations
Latest action: action_date: 2020-03-05
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Summaries:
action_date: 2020-03-05
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Fairness in Disaster Relief Act </b></p> <p>This bill authorizes the President to reimburse local governments for interest expenses for loans pertaining to disaster relief.</p>

tv_txt: II 116th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 3407 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 5, 2020 Mr. Rubio (for himself and Mr. Scott of Florida ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs A BILL To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to provide for the authority to reimburse local governments for interest expenses, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Fairness in Disaster Relief Act . 2. Reimbursement of interest payments related to public assistance 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: 431. Reimbursement of interest payments related to public assistance (a) In general The President may provide financial assistance to a local government as reimbursement for qualifying interest. (b) Definitions In this section, the following definitions apply: (1) Prime rate The term prime rate means the average predominant prime rate quoted by commercial banks to large businesses, as determined by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2) 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. (3) Qualifying loan The term qualifying loan means a loan— (A) obtained by a local government; and (B) of which not less than 90 percent of the proceeds are used to fund activities for which such local government receives assistance under this Act after the date on which such loan is disbursed. .