To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to provide for the authority to reimburse local governments for interest expenses, and for other purposes.

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 5059 To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to provide for the authority to reimburse local governments for interest expenses, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NOVEMBER 13, 2019 Mr. DUNN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer- gency Assistance Act to provide for the authority to reimburse local governments for interest expenses, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. REIMBURSEMENT OF INTEREST PAYMENTS RE- 3 LATED TO PUBLIC ASSISTANCE. 4 Title IV of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 5 Emergency Assistance Act is amended by adding at the 6 end the following: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:36 Nov 21, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5059.IH H5059 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 5059 IH ‘‘SEC. 431. REIMBURSEMENT OF INTEREST PAYMENTS RE- 1 LATED TO PUBLIC ASSISTANCE. 2 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The President may provide fi- 3 nancial assistance to a local government as reimbursement 4 for qualifying interest. 5 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following 6 definitions apply: 7 ‘‘(1) QUALIFYING INTEREST.—The term ‘quali- 8 fying interest’ means, with respect to a qualifying 9 loan, the lesser of— 10 ‘‘(A) the actual interest paid to a lender 11 for such qualifying loan; and 12 ‘‘(B) the interest that would have been 13 paid to a lender if such qualifying loan had an 14 interest rate of 2 times the discount window 15 primary credit interest rate most recently pub- 16 lished on the Federal Reserve Statistical Re- 17 lease on selected interest rates (daily or weekly) 18 (commonly referred to as the ‘H.15 release’ or 19 the ‘Federal funds rate’).’’. 20 ‘‘(2) QUALIFYING LOAN.—The term ‘qualifying 21 loan’ means a loan— 22 ‘‘(A) obtained by a local government; and 23 ‘‘(B) of which not less than 90 percent of 24 the proceeds are used to fund activities for 25 which such local government receives assistance 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:36 Nov 21, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5059.IH H5059 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 5059 IH under this Act after the date on which such 1 loan is disbursed.’’. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:36 Nov 21, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5059.IH H5059 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS