Disaster Assistance Simplification Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2575 To prohibit recipients of disaster recovery relief assistance from the Depart- ment of Housing and Urban Development from penalizing applicants that declined assistance from the Small Business Administration. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 Mr. RUBIO (for himself, Mr. SCOTT of Florida, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. CORNYN, and Mr. CRUZ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs A BILL To prohibit recipients of disaster recovery relief assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Develop- ment from penalizing applicants that declined assistance from the Small Business Administration. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Disaster Assistance 4 Simplification Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. DUPLICATION OF BENEFITS FOR DISASTER RELIEF. 6 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:42 Oct 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2575.IS S2575 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 2575 IS (1) the term ‘‘Administration’’ means the Small 1 Business Administration; and 2 (2) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 3 of Housing and Urban Development. 4 (b) PROHIBITIONS.—With respect to a grant pro- 5 vided to a grantee under title I of the Housing and Com- 6 munity Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.) 7 related to a major disaster declared by the President 8 under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Re- 9 lief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170), the 10 Secretary and the grantee shall not— 11 (1) take into consideration whether an appli- 12 cant for assistance from the grantee applied and was 13 approved for, but declined, assistance related to the 14 major disaster from the Administration under sec- 15 tion 7(b) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 16 636(b)); or 17 (2) reduce the amount provided to an applicant 18 described in paragraph (1) by any amount that the 19 applicant would have received from the Administra- 20 tion if the applicant had not declined the assistance. 21 (c) APPLICATION.—Subsection (b) shall apply with 22 respect to applicants for assistance from a grantee under 23 title I of the Housing and Community Development Act 24 of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.) with respect to a major 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:42 Oct 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2575.IS S2575 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 2575 IS disaster declared by the President under section 401 of 1 the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency As- 2 sistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170) who applied for assistance 3 from the Administration under section 7(b) of the Small 4 Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(b)) related to the major dis- 5 aster before, on, or after the date of enactment of this 6 Act. 7 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:42 Oct 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2575.IS S2575 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS