Bill Clarifying Disaster-Damaged Public Housing Passes House
Hurricane Recovery
Memo to Members: Vol 13, No. 25, June 20, 2008
On June 18, the House passed a bill by voice vote that would require FEMA to be responsible for funding disaster-damaged public housing. The bill, the Public Housing Disaster Relief Act of 2008, H.R. 6276, would repeal Section 9(k) of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937. This section authorizes HUD to pay for the repair of disaster-damaged public housing.
At a June 4 joint hearing held by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity and the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response, the FEMA Assistant Administrator for Disaster Assistance, Carlos Castillo, cited Section 9(k) as the reason FEMA should not be held responsible for the funding.
In its FY09 budget request to Congress, HUD zeroed out funding to the program. At the June 4 hearing, House Financial Services Chair Barney Frank (D-MA) said he would seek to have language included into an FY09 appropriations bill to clarify who would be responsible for the public housing funding.
Representative Don Cazayoux (D-LA), the sponsor of H.R. 6276, said that, “They [FEMA and HUD] got caught in a bureaucratic mess,” referring to who was responsible for providing the funding for disaster-damaged public housing.
