[Senate Report 110-453]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
110th Congress
2d Session SENATE Report
110-453
_______________________________________________________________________
Calendar No. 951
FEMA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2008
__________
R E P O R T
of the
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
to accompany
S. 2382
TO REQUIRE THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY
TO QUICKLY AND FAIRLY ADDRESS THE ABUNDANCE OF SURPLUS MANUFACTURED
HOUSING UNITS STORED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AROUND THE COUNTRY AT
TAXPAYER EXPENSE
September 11, 2008.--Ordered to be printed
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TED STEVENS, Alaska
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
BARACK OBAMA, Illinois PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri JOHN WARNER, Virginia
JON TESTER, Montana JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire
Michael L. Alexander, Staff Director
Kevin J. Landy, Chief Counsel
Mary Beth Schultz, Counsel
Kristin T. Sharp, Staff Director, Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local,
and Private Sector Preparedness and Integration
Brandon L. Milhorn, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Asha A. Mathew, Minority Senior Counsel
Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk
C O N T E N T S
Page
I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................1
III. Legislative History..............................................2
IV. Section by Section Analysis......................................2
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................3
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................3
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............4
Calendar No. 951
110th Congress Report
SENATE
2d Session 110-453
======================================================================
FEMA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2008
_______
September 11, 2008.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Lieberman, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, submitted the following
REPORT
[To accompany S. 2382]
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, having considered the bill S. 2382 to require the
Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to
quickly and fairly address the abundance of surplus
manufactured housing units stored by the Federal Government
around the country at taxpayer expense, reports favorably
thereon with an amendment and recommends that the bill, as
amended, do pass.
I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY
The purpose of this legislation is to require FEMA to
develop a plan for the storage, disposal, transfer, or sale of
excess temporary housing units in the disaster housing program
in order to reduce the expense of storing excessive numbers of
temporary housing units.
II. BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR THE LEGISLATION
In response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA purchased
approximately 143,000 temporary housing units, including travel
trailers, park models, and mobile homes. Some were purchased
from dealer lots and others specially-produced through
contractors. Prices ranged from $12,000 to $36,000 per unit,
not including transportation, storage, installation, and other
operational costs.\1\ They were delivered to hurricane victims
beginning September 2005. Since that time, FEMA has stored
temporary housing units for use in future disasters. In
addition, many units used in response to Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita have been returned to FEMA as residents have found other
housing solutions.
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\1\E-mail from Legislative Affairs, FEMA, to Majority Staff,
Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and
Integration (October 19, 2007).
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As of June 23, 2008, FEMA stored more than 112,000
temporary housing units at 21 staging sites across the country.
Of these units, nearly 108,000 were unusable either because
they could not be prepared to house disaster victims within
twenty-four hours or because it was not economically feasible
to make necessary improvements to the units due to high
formaldehyde levels or decay.\2\ The three largest storage
sites are located in Lottie, Louisiana; Hope, Arkansas; and
Columbus, Mississippi. These sites contain approximately
25,600, 18,500, and 11,700 unusable temporary housing units,
respectively.\3\ By FEMA's calculation, each unit costs
approximately $1,000 per year to store and maintain, resulting
in an annual federal expenditure of $130 million, $92 million
of which goes towards the maintenance of the unusable units.\4\
Given these expenses, the Committee believes it is important
that FEMA develop and implement a plan for storing an
appropriate number of housing units to enable FEMA to be
prepared for future disasters and for transferring, selling or
disposing of excess or unusable units in order to save taxpayer
dollars.
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\2\E-mail from Legislative Affairs, FEMA, to Majority Staff,
Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and
Integration (June 24, 2008).
\3\Id.
\4\Id.
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III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
S. 2382 was introduced by Senator Mark Pryor on November
16, 2007 and was referred to the Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee.
On June 25, 2008, the Committee considered S. 2382. The
Committee adopted one amendment. This amendment in the nature
of a substitute offered by Senator Pryor made minor
modifications to the bill. This amendment was adopted by voice
vote. By a voice vote, the Committee ordered the bill as
amended favorably reported to the full Senate. The Senators
present for the voice vote were Senators Lieberman, Akaka,
Carper, Pryor, McCaskill, Collins, Coleman, Coburn, and Sununu.
IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
Section 1. Short title; Definitions
This section of the bill defines ``Administrator'',
``FEMA'', and ``major disaster''.
Section 2. Storage, sale, transfer, and disposal of housing units
Subsection (a) requires FEMA, within three months of
enactment, to determine the appropriate number of temporary
housing units FEMA needs to store in order to be prepared for
future disasters, and to establish criteria for determining
whether the stored units are in usable condition, which shall
include establishing appropriate criteria for formaldehyde
testing.
Subsection (b) requires FEMA, within six months of
enactment, to establish a plan for: (1) storing the number of
housing units the Administrator has determined are necessary
for FEMA to be prepared for future disasters; (2) transferring,
selling, or otherwise disposing of excess usable units; and (3)
disposing of unusable units.
Subsection (c) requires FEMA to implement this plan within
nine months of enactment.
Subsection (d) requires FEMA, within one year of enactment,
to submit a report to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs and to appropriate committees in the
House of Representatives on the status of the distribution,
transfer, sale, or other disposal of the unused temporary
housing units.
V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT
Pursuant to the requirement of paragraph 11(b)(1) of rule
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has
considered the regulatory impact of this bill. CBO states that
the bill contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
VI. ESTIMATED COST OF LEGISLATION
July 7, 2008.
Hon. Joseph I. Lieberman,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S.
Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 2382, the FEMA
Accountability Act of 2008.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Daniel
Hoople.
Sincerely,
Peter R. Orszag.
Enclosure.
S. 2382--FEMA Accountability Act of 2008
CBO estimates that implementing S. 2382 would have no
significant net cost over the next 10 years. Enacting this
legislation would not have a significant impact on net direct
spending and would not affect revenues.
S. 2382 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal
governments.
S. 2382 would direct the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) to develop and implement a plan to dispose of
temporary housing units (for example, mobile homes and travel
trailers) that are in excess of current and future needs or are
determined to be unusable. CBO estimates that developing such a
plan would cost less than $500,000 in 2009, assuming the
availability of appropriated funds.
Under current law, FEMA disposes of temporary housing units
that the agency determines are in excess of its needs through
the General Services Administration. Units are first offered
for sale to current occupants. Thereafter, units may be sold to
the general public or donated to state and local governments
for the purposes of providing temporary housing to victims of a
disaster. Sales proceeds may be retained by FEMA if used to
purchase similar property or deposited in the Treasury as
miscellaneous receipts. CBO cannot predict whether any
additional units would be sold or otherwise disposed of as a
result of this legislation; however, CBO expects that the net
budgetary effect of any sales would probably be insignificant.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Daniel Hoople.
This estimate was approved by Peter H. Fontaine, Assistant
Director for Budget Analysis.
VIII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED
Because this legislation would not repeal or amend any
provision of current law, it would make no changes in existing
law within the meaning of clauses (a) and (b) of paragraph 12
of rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate.