[Senate Report 111-23]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
111th Congress
SENATE
Report
1st Session 111-23
_______________________________________________________________________
Calendar No. 69
FEMA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2009
__________
R E P O R T
of the
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
to accompany
S. 713
TO REQUIRE THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY
TO QUICKLY AND FAIRLY ADDRESS THE ABUNDANCE OF SURPLUS MANUFACTURED
HOUSING UNITS STORED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AROUND THE COUNTRY AT
TAXPAYER EXPENSE
June 1, 2009.--Ordered to be printed
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina
JON TESTER, Montana
ROLAND W. BURRIS, Illinois
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado
Michael L. Alexander, Staff Director
Kevin J. Landy, Chief Counsel
Mary Beth Schultz, Counsel
Kristin T. Sharp, Staff Director, Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local,
and Private Sector Preparedness and Integration
Brandon L. Milhorn, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Asha Mathew, Minority Senior Counsel
Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk
Calendar No. 69
111th Congress
SENATE
Report
1st Session 111-23
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FEMA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2009
_______
June 1, 2009.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Lieberman, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 713]
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 713) to require the
Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to
quickly and fairly address the abundance of surplus
manufactured housing units stored by the Federal Government
around the country at taxpayer expense, having considered the
same, reports favorably thereon with an amendment and
recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................1
III. Legislative History..............................................2
IV. Section by Section Analysis......................................3
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................3
VI. Estimated Cost of Legislation....................................3
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............4
I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY
The purpose of this legislation is to require FEMA to
develop a plan for the storage, disposal, transfer, or sale of
excess temporary housing units in the disaster housing program
in order to reduce the expense of storing excessive numbers of
temporary housing units.
II. BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR THE LEGISLATION
In response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA purchased
approximately 143,000 temporary housing units, including travel
trailers, park models, and mobile homes. Some were purchased
from dealer lots and others were manufactured by contractors.
FEMA paid from $12,000 to $36,000 for each unit, not including
transportation, storage, installation, and other operational
costs.\1\ Hurricane victims started receiving the units in
September 2005. Since that time, FEMA has stored temporary
housing units for use in future disasters. In addition, many
units used in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have been
returned to FEMA as residents have found other housing
solutions.
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\1\E-mail from Legislative Affairs, FEMA, to Majority Staff,
Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and
Integration (October 19, 2007).
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As of April 29, 2009, FEMA was storing more than 120,500
temporary housing units at 15 staging and storage sites across
the country. The vast majority--over 118,000 of them--are
unusable for housing because it is not economically feasible to
make necessary improvements to the units due to high
formaldehyde levels or decay.\2\ The three largest storage
sites are located in Lottie, Louisiana; Hope, Arkansas; and
Melville, Louisiana. These sites contain approximately 25,300,
18,500, and 18,000 unusable temporary housing units,
respectively.\3\ By FEMA's calculation, each unit costs
approximately $1,000 per year to store and maintain, resulting
in an annual federal expenditure of $130 million, $92 million
of which goes towards the maintenance of the unusable units.\4\
Given these expenses, the Committee believes it is important
that FEMA develop and implement a plan for storing an
appropriate number of housing units to enable FEMA to be
prepared for future disasters and for transferring, selling or
disposing of excess or unusable units in order to save taxpayer
dollars.
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\2\E-mail from Legislative Affairs, FEMA, to Majority Staff,
Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and
Integration (April 29, 2009).
\3\Id.
\4\Id.
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III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
S. 713 was introduced on March 26, 2009 by Senator Mark
Pryor and was referred to the Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee.
On April 1, 2009, the Committee considered S. 713. The
Committee adopted one amendment. This amendment was offered by
Senator Landrieu and changed the wording of the last sentence
of the bill from ``* * * other disposal of the unused temporary
housing units purchased by FEMA'' to ``* * * other disposal of
the temporary housing units under this section'' to clarify
that the report was to cover the disposal of all of the
temporary housing units under this section and not just the
unused temporary housing units. The Committee adopted the
amendment by voice vote and then, also by voice vote, ordered
the bill as amended favorably reported to the full Senate. The
Senators present for the voice vote were Senators Lieberman,
Akaka, Carper, Pryor, Tester, Burris, Bennet, Collins, Coburn,
and Voinovich.
Except for technical changes and the Landrieu amendment, S.
713 is identical to S. 2382, introduced in the 110th Congress.
S. 2382 was introduced by Senator Pryor on November 16, 2007,
and reported favorably by voice vote by the Senate Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on June 25, 2008
with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. It passed the
Senate with an amendment that added the definition of
``emergency'' and made some technical corrections by unanimous
consent on September 11, 2008. On September 29, 2008 the House
Committee of Transportation and Infrastructure discharged S.
2382 as amended and the House of Representatives considered it
by unanimous consent and passed it without objection. The
amendment added on other legislation not originally included in
S. 2382, and unrelated to the subject of S. 2382. S. 2382, as
amended by the House of Representatives did not pass the
Senate.
IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
Section 1. Short title; definitions
This section of the bill defines ``Administrator,''
``FEMA,'' ``emergency,'' and ``major disaster.''
Section 2. Transfer, storage, sale, and disposal of housing units
Subsection (a) requires FEMA, within three months of
enactment, to determine the appropriate number of temporary
housing units FEMA needs to store in order to be prepared for
future disasters, and to establish criteria for determining
whether the stored units are in usable condition, which shall
include establishing appropriate criteria for formaldehyde
testing.
Subsection (b) requires FEMA, within six months of
enactment, to establish a plan for: (1) storing the number of
housing units the Administrator has determined are necessary
for FEMA to be prepared for future disasters; (2) transferring,
selling, or otherwise disposing of excess usable units; and (3)
disposing of unusable units.
Subsection (c) requires FEMA to implement this plan within
nine months of enactment.
Subsection (d) requires FEMA, within one year of enactment,
to submit a report to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs and to appropriate committees in the
House of Representatives on the status of the distribution,
transfer, sale, or other disposal temporary housing units under
this section.
V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT
Pursuant to the requirement of paragraph 11(b)(1) of rule
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has
considered the regulatory impact of this bill. CBO states that
the bill contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
VI. ESTIMATED COST OF LEGISLATION
April 3, 2009.
Hon. Joseph I. Lieberman,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S.
Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 713, the FEMA
Accountability Act of 2009.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Daniel
Hoople.
Sincerely,
Douglas W. Elmendorf.
Enclosure.
S. 713--FEMA Accountability Act of 2009
CBO estimates that implementing S. 713 would have no
significant net cost over the next 10 years. Enacting this
legislation would not affect direct spending or revenues.
S. 713 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal
governments.
S. 713 would direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) to develop and implement a plan to dispose of temporary
housing units (for example, mobile homes and travel trailers)
that the agency determines to be unusable or in excess of
current or future needs. CBO estimates that developing such a
plan would cost less than $500,000 in 2009 and 2010, assuming
the availability of appropriated funds.
Under current law, FEMA disposes of excess housing units
through the General Services Administration. Units are first
offered for sale to current occupants. Thereafter, units may be
sold to the general public or donated to state and local
governments for the purposes of providing temporary housing to
victims of a disaster. Proceeds may be retained by FEMA to
cover sale costs or to purchase similar property. Otherwise,
funds are deposited into the Treasury as miscellaneous
receipts. CBO cannot predict whether any additional units would
be sold or otherwise disposed of as a result of this
legislation; however, we expect that the net budgetary effect
of any action would likely be insignificant.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Daniel Hoople.
This estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy Assistant
Director for Budget Analysis.
VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED
Because this legislation would not repeal or amend any
provision of current law, it would make no changes in existing
law within the meaning of clauses (a) and (b) of paragraph 12
of rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate.