This bill would permanently authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. The legislation would codify and enhance key elements and functions of CDBG-DR, such as its prioritization of unmet needs of low-and-moderate income communities, to better ensure the program’s intended outcomes and effectiveness. S. 1686 would establish strong oversight requirements to ensure both HUD and state grantees are accountable to disaster survivors, deliver an efficient and effective response for both those in need and taxpayers funding the program. Finally, the bill would modernize CDBG-DR to deliver assistance allowing communities to rebuild with an eye for the future.

WHY WE LIKE IT

Passage of the bipartisan Reforming Disaster Recovery Act would permanently authorize one of the most important federal disaster assistance programs focused on long-term recovery. This critical step would help expedite recovery for disaster survivors. The bill would ensure that lower-capacity communities have access to a stable source of long-term recovery resources and help communities rebuild in a way that bolsters resilience to future events. Permanent authorization would also allow HUD to coordinate with other federal disaster recovery programs to better align processes and timelines to reduce complexity across the system, as a whole.