House Passes Bill Improving Disaster Recovery for People with Disabilities, Low Income Populations

On Monday, the House passed the “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act of 2019,” by a vote of 290-118 with strong bipartisan support. The legislation seeks to permanently authorize the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, which provides states and communities with flexible, long-term recovery resources needed to rebuild affordable housing and infrastructure after a disaster. The bill also provides important safeguards and tools to help ensure that federal disaster recovery efforts reach all impacted households, including the lowest-income seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, people experiencing homelessness, and other individuals who are often hardest-hit by disasters and have the fewest resources to recover. More details are available in this fact sheet.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Senator Todd Young (R-IN) have introduced (S. 2301) as a companion bill.