Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.
This bill amends the Stafford Act to allow the President to waive the statutory prohibition on duplications of benefits for disaster or emergency losses, at a Governor's or affected party's request, if the waiver is in the public interest and will not cause waste, fraud, or abuse. The waiver decision must be made within 45 days, cannot treat a loan as a duplication if all federal assistance is applied to disaster loss, and cannot impose an income threshold for waiver eligibility.
Liberal emphasizes aiding victims and equity; conservatives emphasize fiscal risk and federal overreach.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill effectually amends the Stafford Act to establish presidential waiver authority over the duplication-of-benefits prohibition with specified criteria and a firm decision timeline, and it adds cross-agency reporting requirements; however, it omits fiscal/resourcing acknowledgements, detailed procedural rules for requests and adjudication, and finer-grained safeguards and metrics that would typically accompany a statutory expansion of federal payment authority.
This bill amends the Stafford Act to allow the President to waive the statutory prohibition on duplications of benefits for disaster or emergency losses, at a Governor's or affected party's request, if the waiver is in the public interest and will not cause waste, fraud, or abuse.
The waiver decision must be made within 45 days, cannot treat a loan as a duplication if all federal assistance is applied to disaster loss, and cannot impose an income threshold for waiver eligibility.
The amendment applies to major disasters or emergencies declared on or after January 1, 2016.
Technically focused and potentially bipartisan, but fiscal exposure, retroactivity, and expanded executive discretion lower enactment odds.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill effectually amends the Stafford Act to establish presidential waiver authority over the duplication-of-benefits prohibition with specified criteria and a firm decision timeline, and it adds cross-agency reporting requirements; however, it omits fiscal/resourcing acknowledgements, detailed procedural rules for requests and adjudication, and finer-grained safeguards and metrics that would typically accompany a statutory expansion of federal payment authority.
Liberal emphasizes aiding victims and equity; conservatives emphasize fiscal risk and federal overreach.
These are examples from the analysis, not a ranked list of the most-affected groups.
Liberal emphasizes aiding victims and equity; conservatives emphasize fiscal risk and federal overreach.
Likely supportive because the change increases flexibility to help disaster survivors access assistance, removes income barriers, and emphasizes equity.
Will view the 45-day decision deadline and fraud safeguards as useful but will want strong implementation and oversight to protect vulnerable people.
Cautiously supportive if accompanied by clear safeguards and oversight.
Appreciates improved coordination and applicant communication, but worries about fiscal exposure and administrative clarity.
Would want detailed standards, timelines, and accountability built into implementation.
Likely skeptical because it expands executive discretion to waive a statutory prohibition, potentially increases federal payouts, and removes income-based limits.
Concerned about moral hazard, federal overreach, and uncertain fiscal impact absent tighter controls.
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Still ahead
Still ahead
Still ahead
Technically focused and potentially bipartisan, but fiscal exposure, retroactivity, and expanded executive discretion lower enactment odds.
The bill has not accumulated any surfaced votes yet.
Liberal emphasizes aiding victims and equity; conservatives emphasize fiscal risk and federal overreach.
Technically focused and potentially bipartisan, but fiscal exposure, retroactivity, and expanded executive discretion lower enactment odds.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill effectually amends the Stafford Act to establish presidential waiver authority over the duplication-of-benefits prohibition with specified criteria and a firm decisio…
Go beyond the headline summary with full stakeholder mapping, legislative design analysis, passage barriers, and lens-by-lens tradeoff breakdowns.