Same day Aloha State braced for tsunami, U.S. committee advances bipartisan disaster recovery measure

The same day the Aloha State braced for what Gov. Josh Green said at one point early in the afternoon could be “significant damage along the coastlines” from a tsunami generated from a massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake off the east coast of Russia in the northern Pacific, a bipartisan disaster recovery measure co-authored by one of the state’s U.S. senators advanced in Washington.

Aimed at helping communities recover from major disasters more quickly, the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act was introduced and written by Hawai‘i Democrat U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and Maine Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.

It was included in a bipartisan housing package advanced unanimously July 29 by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

The Schatz-Collins measure addresses long-standing recommendations from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of the Inspector General and Government Accountability Office to establish a permanent and predictable funding process.

“Right now, each time a disaster happens, communities in crisis are forced to wait for Congress to pass a disaster funding bill before [Housing and Urban Development] can help,” Schatz said in a release about the reform measure advancing. “Our provision changes the law so they no longer have to wait. As soon as a disaster strikes, [Housing and Urban Development] will be able to help communities begin the process of recovery.”

The Reforming Disaster Recovery Act accelerates assistance to disaster-impacted communities by:

• Creating a disaster recovery fund to allow U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to predictably assist communities.
• Authorizing U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to issue regulations to codify program requirements and reduce unnecessary red tape, delays and unpredictability that stems from the current process.
• Supporting resilience as a part of — rather than separate from — disaster recovery.
• Authorizing “quick release” funds to support grantee capacity right after an event.
• Improving federal coordination by establishing an office at U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development devoted to disaster recovery and resilience.
• Reducing unnecessary administrative burdens and interagency requirement conflicts.

“With natural disasters increasing in frequency and intensity … it is critical that states have the necessary resources to respond in order to protect public safety, property and our economy,” Collins said in the release. “Our bipartisan legislation would allow communities to immediately focus on helping families and local businesses recover instead of waiting on the federal bureaucracy in the wake of a natural disaster.”

You can read the full Reforming Disaster Recovery Act online.