FEMA Loan Interest Payment Relief Act

FEMA Loan Interest Payment Relief Act

This bill directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide financial assistance to a local government or electric cooperative as reimbursement for interest paid on a loan used for emergency or disaster recovery activities later paid for by FEMA assistance. The interest that qualifies for reimbursement may not exceed the amount of interest that would have been paid if the loan's interest rate were equal to the most recent prime rate. 

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2672 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2672

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 18, 2023

  Mr. Dunn of Florida (for himself, Mr. Graves of Louisiana, and Mr. 
    Soto) 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 Emergency 
    Assistance Act to provide for the authority to reimburse local 
  governments or electric cooperatives for interest expenses, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``FEMA Loan Interest Payment Relief 
Act''.

SEC. 2. REIMBURSEMENT OF INTEREST PAYMENTS RELATED TO PUBLIC 
              ASSISTANCE.

    (a) In General.--Title IV of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 
and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170 et seq.) is amended by 
adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 431. REIMBURSEMENT OF INTEREST PAYMENTS RELATED TO PUBLIC 
              ASSISTANCE.

    ``(a) In General.--The President, acting through the Administrator 
of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, shall provide financial 
assistance to a local government or electric cooperative as 
reimbursement for qualifying interest.
    ``(b) Definitions.--In this section, the following definitions 
apply:
            ``(1) Qualifying interest.--The term `qualifying interest' 
        means, with respect to a qualifying loan, the lesser of--
                    ``(A) the actual interest paid to a lender for such 
                qualifying loan; and
                    ``(B) the interest that would have been paid to a 
                lender if such qualifying loan had an interest rate 
                equal to the prime rate most recently published on the 
                Federal Reserve Statistical Release on selected 
                interest rates.
            ``(2) Qualifying loan.--The term `qualifying loan' means a 
        loan--
                    ``(A) obtained by a local government or electric 
                cooperative; and
                    ``(B) of which not less than 90 percent of the 
                proceeds are used to fund activities for which such 
                local government or electric cooperative receives 
                assistance under this Act after the date on which such 
                loan is disbursed.''.
    (b) Rule of Applicability.--Any qualifying interest (as such term 
is defined in section 431 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 
Emergency Assistance Act, as added by this Act) incurred by a local 
government or electric cooperative in the 7 years preceding the date of 
enactment of this Act shall be treated as eligible for financial 
assistance for purposes of such section.
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