{"bills":[{"photos":{"featured":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/s2109-114/featured_directing-dollars-to-disaster-relief-act-of-2015-1456093254.jpg","featured_large":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/s2109-114/featured_large_directing-dollars-to-disaster-relief-act-of-2015-1456093254.jpg","shareable":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/s2109-114.png"},"introduced_on":"2015-09-30","title_override":"Does FEMA Need to Reduce Administrative Costs in Responding to Major Disasters?","summary_override":"

This bill would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to make a plan to reduce the cost of administering programs that offer grants and technical assistance in areas affected by major disasters.

Specifically, FEMA would be directed to:

Develop and implement an integrated plan to track, control, and reduce administrative costs when FEMA delivers assistance for major disasters;
Compare the costs and benefits of tracking administrative data in the following programs: public assistance, individual assistance, hazard mitigation, and mission assignment;
Clarify FEMA guidance and minimum documentation requirements for a direct administrative cost claimed by a grantee or subgrantee of a public assistance grant program authorized by the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.

FEMA would be required to submit to Congress a report on the development and implementation of the previous fiscal year’s plan, with three-year and five-year updates each year by November 30 that includes:

The total amount spent on administrative costs and the average percentage of administrative costs of major disasters for each fiscal year;
An assessment of the plan’s effectiveness;
An analysis of whether FEMA is achieving its strategic goals for administrative costs, and if not, what is preventing it from doing so;
Any actions FEMA has identified as useful in improving upon and reaching those goals;
Any administrative cost data for major disasters, if FEMA determines it is feasible to track such data.

","official_title":"A bill to direct the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop an integrated plan to reduce administrative costs under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, and for other purposes.","short_title":"Directing Dollars to Disaster Relief Act of 2015","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the Senate on February 9, 2016. The summary of that version is repeated here.)\n\nDirecting Dollars to Disaster Relief Act of 2015\n\n(Sec. 3) This bill directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to:\n\n develop and implement an integrated plan to control and reduce administrative costs incurred by FEMA in support of the delivery of assistance for major disasters; compare the costs and benefits of tracking the administrative cost data for major disasters by the public assistance, individual assistance, hazard mitigation, and mission assignment programs; track such information; and clarify FEMA guidance and minimum documentation requirements for a direct administrative cost claimed by a grantee or subgrantee of a public assistance grant program authorized by the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. (Sec. 4) FEMA must submit to Congress, by November 30 of each year for seven years beginning on the ...","summarized":true,"cost":0,"cost_commentary":"The CBO estimates that this bill would have an insignificant effect on the federal budget over the 2016-2020 period, as FEMA is already performing some tasks required by this legislation.","impact":"FEMA grants and programs related to disaster relief; and Congress.","argument_for":"FEMA should be actively trying to spend as little on administrative costs as possible to conserve resources for disaster relief, and this reporting requirement would help the agency accomplish that.","argument_against":"This bill is unnecessary because FEMA is already attempting to bring its spending on administrative costs under control, and Congress doesn’t need an annual report to know if progress is being made.","bill_type":"s","published":true,"type":"FederalBill","id":"s2109-114","bill_id":"s2109-114","formal_id":"S. 2109","chamber":"senate","congress":114,"last_action_at":"2016-02-29T00:00:00.000Z","active":true,"enacted":true,"enacted_at":"2016-02-29","vetoed":false,"last_vote_at":"2016-02-23T21:08:58.000Z","debated_on":null,"congress_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th/senate-bill/2109","plain_text_url":"https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-114s2109enr/html/BILLS-114s2109enr.htm","shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/s2109-114.png","congress_full_text_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th/senate-bill/2109/text","is_current_congress":false,"last_version_on":"2016-02-25","related_bill_ids":[],"progress":"Enacted","house_passage_result":true,"senate_passage_result":true,"position_count":150,"committees":[{"name":"Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSPW","subcommittee":false},{"name":"Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs","chamber":"senate","committee_id":"SSGA","subcommittee":false}],"links":{"rollCalls":"/api/roll_calls?bill_id=s2109-114","details":"/api/bills/s2109-114/details","sharingMessage":"/api/sharing_messages/s2109-114","positionsFor":"/api/bills/s2109-114/positions/for","positionsAgainst":"/api/bills/s2109-114/positions/against"},"upcoming":false,"cosponsors_count":2,"slug":"s2109-114-directing-dollars-to-disaster-relief-act-of-2015","latest_chamber_votes_id":null,"official_url":null,"target_video":true,"following":false,"vote_count":1789,"yea_vote_count":1279,"nay_vote_count":506,"passed_house":true,"passed_senate":true,"vote_id":null,"my_position_id":null,"topic_ids":["government","emergency-management"],"issue_ids":["federal-agencies","government","transparency","emergency-management"],"sponsor_id":541}],"votes":[],"issues":[{"id":"federal-agencies","name":"Federal Agencies","slug":"federal-agencies","description":"Vote on the latest federal legislation regarding Federal Agencies. 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Does FEMA Need to Reduce Administrative Costs in Responding to Major Disasters?