Fairness in Disaster Relief Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3407 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 5, 2020 Mr. RUBIO (for himself and Mr. SCOTT of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 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. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fairness in Disaster 4 Relief Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 10, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3407.IS S3407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3407 IS SEC. 2. REIMBURSEMENT OF INTEREST PAYMENTS RE- 1 LATED TO PUBLIC ASSISTANCE. 2 Title IV of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 3 Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170 et seq.) is 4 amended by adding at the end the following: 5 ‘‘SEC. 431. REIMBURSEMENT OF INTEREST PAYMENTS RE- 6 LATED TO PUBLIC ASSISTANCE. 7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The President may provide fi- 8 nancial assistance to a local government as reimbursement 9 for qualifying interest. 10 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following 11 definitions apply: 12 ‘‘(1) PRIME RATE.—The term ‘prime rate’ 13 means the average predominant prime rate quoted 14 by commercial banks to large businesses, as deter- 15 mined by the Board of Governors of the Federal Re- 16 serve System. 17 ‘‘(2) QUALIFYING INTEREST.—The term ‘quali- 18 fying interest’ means, with respect to a qualifying 19 loan, the lesser of— 20 ‘‘(A) the actual interest paid to a lender 21 for such qualifying loan; and 22 ‘‘(B) the interest that would have been 23 paid to a lender if such qualifying loan had an 24 interest rate equal to the prime rate most re- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 10, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3407.IS S3407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 3407 IS cently published on the Federal Reserve Statis- 1 tical Release on selected interest rates. 2 ‘‘(3) QUALIFYING LOAN.—The term ‘qualifying 3 loan’ means a loan— 4 ‘‘(A) obtained by a local government; and 5 ‘‘(B) of which not less than 90 percent of 6 the proceeds are used to fund activities for 7 which such local government receives assistance 8 under this Act after the date on which such 9 loan is disbursed.’’. 10 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 10, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3407.IS S3407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS