Bill Text: TX SB351 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to the creation and administration of a disaster recovery fund.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-02-01 - Referred to Finance [SB351 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-SB351-Introduced.html
| 85R3324 MK-D | ||
| By: Watson | S.B. No. 351 | |
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| relating to the creation and administration of a disaster recovery | ||
| fund. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. Chapter 418, Government Code, is amended by | ||
| adding Subchapter I to read as follows: | ||
| SUBCHAPTER I. DISASTER RECOVERY FUND | ||
| Sec. 418.201. PURPOSE; INTENT. It is the intent of the | ||
| legislature that in recovering from a disaster, the first recourse | ||
| of state and local governmental entities and volunteer | ||
| organizations should be to the money regularly appropriated to | ||
| those entities or money received by those entities from other | ||
| sources in the normal course of operations. Assistance grants | ||
| provided under this subchapter are intended to mitigate | ||
| extraordinary burdens of state or local governmental entities and | ||
| volunteer organizations in relation to available resources. | ||
| Sec. 418.202. DEFINITION. In this subchapter, "fund" means | ||
| the disaster recovery fund account. | ||
| Sec. 418.203. DISASTER RECOVERY FUND ACCOUNT. (a) The | ||
| disaster recovery fund is an account in the general revenue fund to | ||
| be administered by the division. Money in the fund may be | ||
| appropriated only for a grant awarded under this subchapter. | ||
| (b) The fund consists of: | ||
| (1) money credited, appropriated, or transferred to | ||
| the fund at the direction of the legislature; | ||
| (2) federal money credited, appropriated, or | ||
| transferred to the fund; and | ||
| (3) gifts and grants contributed to the fund. | ||
| Sec. 418.204. USE OF MONEY IN DISASTER RECOVERY FUND. The | ||
| division may award from the fund a grant to a state or local | ||
| governmental entity or a volunteer fire department that | ||
| participates in disaster recovery in an area where the governor has | ||
| declared a state of disaster to assist in the payment of the | ||
| entity's costs incurred for its recovery efforts. Money granted | ||
| from the fund may be used only for: | ||
| (1) a nonfederal match required for a Federal | ||
| Emergency Management Agency qualifying project; | ||
| (2) a disaster recovery project to remedy the public | ||
| damage and direct loss incurred as a result of a disaster; and | ||
| (3) reimbursement of the entity for costs incurred by | ||
| compensating its employees for disaster recovery-related | ||
| activities that are performed in response to the disaster and that | ||
| are outside of the scope of the employees' normal duties. | ||
| Sec. 418.205. APPLICATION FOR GRANT FROM DISASTER RECOVERY | ||
| FUND. The division shall develop and implement rules, procedures, | ||
| and an application process for an entity to request a grant from the | ||
| fund. An application for a grant must include: | ||
| (1) a description of the purposes for which the | ||
| applicant is requesting the grant assistance; | ||
| (2) an estimated amount of the cost of the relevant | ||
| damages sustained by the applicant as a result of the disaster, | ||
| based on a preliminary damage assessment conducted by the applicant | ||
| or other relevant information; | ||
| (3) a certification of the applicant's exhaustion of | ||
| local effort, including evidence of an applicant's uninsured | ||
| losses, anticipated revenues and expenditures, and projected | ||
| losses in local revenue as a result of the disaster; | ||
| (4) evidence that the applicant is located in a county | ||
| for which the countywide loss threshold has been exceeded because | ||
| of the declared disaster, as calculated using the Federal Emergency | ||
| Management Agency's countywide per capita impact indicator; and | ||
| (5) evidence that the applicant has staff, policies, | ||
| and procedures in place adequate to administer the grant. | ||
| Sec. 418.206. POST-APPLICATION PROCEDURES. (a) On receipt | ||
| of an application requesting a grant from the fund, and before | ||
| awarding money in response to the application, the division shall: | ||
| (1) substantiate the damage estimate provided by the | ||
| applicant; | ||
| (2) review the emergency management program and plan | ||
| in the jurisdiction where the applicant is located; | ||
| (3) review the information on the staff, policies, and | ||
| procedures in place to administer the grant submitted by the | ||
| applicant; and | ||
| (4) verify that the program, plan, staff, policies, | ||
| and procedures in place to administer the grant are adequate. | ||
| (b) The division shall prioritize grants and select grant | ||
| recipients based on information provided by the applicants, other | ||
| information available to the division, and criteria adopted by the | ||
| division. | ||
| Sec. 418.207. REIMBURSEMENT OF FUND. (a) If an entity | ||
| receives a grant from the fund and the entity subsequently receives | ||
| reimbursement from the federal government, an insurer, or another | ||
| source for the costs for which the grant was awarded, then the | ||
| entity shall reimburse the fund. | ||
| (b) The division shall prescribe accounting and other | ||
| procedures as necessary to ensure that the fund is reimbursed as | ||
| provided by Subsection (a). | ||
| SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives | ||
| a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as | ||
| provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this | ||
| Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this | ||
| Act takes effect September 1, 2017. | ||
