The sign is noticeable before the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center at the Weaverville town hall on March 29, 2025 at Weaverville, North Carolina. (Photo Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
Washington – essentially a double -sided act to review and raise the Federal Crisis Management Agency is heading towards the DNA of the US Chamber after the key committee approved the regulations.
The transport and infrastructure panel voted 57-3 September 3 to develop the center, which would introduce dozens of changes in how the federal government is preparing and reacted to natural disasters.
“Fema is a place where Americans seek help after the worst day in their lives, so it is very important that the agency is to react all the time,” said Greg Stanton, one of the co-consonant of Arizona Democrats Rep. Greg Stanton. “This account provides FEMA independence and tools that must respond to a disaster.”
Republican representatives of Tim Burchett from Tennessee, Eric Budison from Missouri and Scott Perry from Pennsylvania voted against the application of the law on the floor of the house. Their offices did not answer the requests for a comment with the question why they oppose the legislation.
. 207-page measureFormally called the Crisis Management Act for Americans (FEMA) from 2025, he would remove FEMA from the Internal Security Department and would make it an agency at the office level.
Legislation would create one application for federal assistance in impromptu knees from FEM, Department of Agriculture, the Health and Social Welfare Department, Department of Residential and City Development, and Small Business Administration.
It would also ensure local and state governments greater flexibility in making decisions which types of emergency apartments will best satisfy the needs of their inhabitants after various natural disasters.
Republicans and Democrats on the committee praised various changes that they would put during a two -hour marker who offered a rarer example of double -sided on the capitol.
Donations from charity and fema
The Republican Republican of North Carolina David Rouzer and the democratic California Republicant Laura Friedman spoke to support a provision reversing a policy, which, he claims, punished people who received aid from charity organization after impromptu knees.
“Too many families who accept the donation from a charity or take a SBA loan to keep the lights to later, that adopting these basic resources prevents them from obtaining another help later, for which they would be qualified otherwise,” said Rouzer. “This act explains that SBA loans and private charity donations are not considered duplicatic for individual FEMA assistance.”
Friedman said she was shocked when she learned that Fema had donations for charity against the survivors of the disaster after Los Angeles.
This led her to the presentation of the Act on the victims of not punishing with the Republican Republican Republican Republican Miker Ezell, who was transferred to the FEMA renovation account.
“I want to thank all the members of this committee, especially the chairman (Sam) Graves and the member of the ranking (Rick) Larsen for their understanding of the meaning of this remedy for the victims who saw a charity organization that their churches collect, are counted as income and subtracted from the amount they received from Poda,” said Friedman.
The democratic representative in Oregon Val Hoyle spoke to the support of making a department at the office level, saying that he was attacked in the Internal Security Department from just after the terrorist attacks of September 11.
“After submitting the Internal Security Department, he was buried in the layers of bureaucracy,” said Hoyle. “The extensive DHS-security mission, counteracting terrorism, immigration enforcement, transport safety and many others-FEMA was less capable of acting with the need for community affected by speed and agility.”
Hoyle said that the legislation restoring “FEMA independence will help to isolate relief in the case of disasters from” types of “political pressure” that exist in the Internal Security Department.
Allowing reform
Despite the broadly bilateral support for regulations under the Committee, it will probably undergo some changes in the coming weeks and months.
Chairman of House Natural Resources, Bruce Westerman, R-Ark. And the ranking member Jared Huffman, D-Carif. Who both sit on the Committee on Transport and Infrastructure, aroused concerns about the elements of FEM renovation during Markup.
Westerman said he voted for the law, but he expected that the management of the Committee for Transport and Infrastructure cooperates with him to solve problems related to “Reform problems” that are subject to the jurisdiction of his panel.
“There is one provision regarding the act on endangered species, which we have concerns that there is actually the executable way in which it is written,” said Westerman. “It is again something that can be fixed and we are looking forward to working with you when we go forward on the invoice.”
Huffman said he was concerned about how the renovation of FEMA refers to the “environmental review statute”, which is subject to the Natural Resources Committee.
“Of course, I share the purpose of limiting bureaucracy. We want families affected by the disaster to be able to rebuild faster. There are ways to ensure that recovery is tough, resistant and balanced. That we are rebuilding once. These are things that (the National Act on environmental policy) helps to ensure. So I can’t wait to continue working with this bill.
Potomac River Water
Members of the Committee for Transport and Infrastructure offered only two amendments to the Act – one adopted by voting and one withdrawn.
Democratic Indiana Rep. André Carson received a lot of support for his amendments to require FEM to inform Congress members about subsidies in their districts, a practice that, he said, changed during Trump’s administration.
“We should not impose transparency and responsibility, but if FEMA does not provide this information, my amendment codifies traditional Congress notifications,” said Carson.
Democratic del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the Colombia district, offered and then withdrew the amendment, which would require a fema to “surrender to the Congress Plan to provide emergency drinking water to the region of the capital of the nation at any time of the Potomaca River becomes useless.”
Offering and then withdrawing the amendment is a common way to emphasize problems without forcing voting.
Norton said that the corps of army engineers, which is responsible for the supply of city water, has only sufficient reserves for one day if something happened.
“If the Potomac River becomes useless, which could happen at any time, whether thanks to a human or natural event, it would be a significant risk for the inhabitants of the country’s capital, the activities of the federal government, national security and the region’s economy,” said Norton.
The Congress partly financed the study to identify spare water supply and additional water storage equipment. But Norton said: “Every solution is in years.”
