FEMA Loan Interest Payment Relief Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2836 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2836

     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 10, 2025

  Mr. Dunn of Florida (for himself, Mr. Soto, Ms. Lee of Florida, Mr. 
 Carter of Louisiana, Mr. Higgins of Louisiana, Mr. Moore of Alabama, 
Mr. Webster of Florida, Mr. Gimenez, Mr. Bilirakis, Mr. Moskowitz, Mr. 
   Donalds, and Mr. Mills) 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.--
            ``(1) In general.--In this section, the following 
        definitions apply:
                    ``(A) Qualifying interest.--The term `qualifying 
                interest' means, with respect to a qualifying loan, the 
                lesser of--
                            ``(i) the actual interest paid to a lender 
                        for such qualifying loan; and
                            ``(ii) 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.
                    ``(B) Qualifying loan.--The term `qualifying loan' 
                means a loan--
                            ``(i) obtained by a local government or 
                        electric cooperative; and
                            ``(ii) 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.
            ``(2) Local government.--For purposes of this section, the 
        term `local government' includes the District of Columbia.''.
    (b) Rules of Applicability.--
            (1) Eligibility.--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 9 
        years preceding the date of enactment of this Act shall be 
        treated as eligible for financial assistance for purposes of 
        such section.
            (2) Appropriations.--Only amounts appropriated on or after 
        the date of enactment of this Act may be made available to 
        carry out the amendment made by this section.
    (c) Alternative Procedures for Outstanding Qualifying Interest 
Reimbursement.--
            (1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
        law, not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this 
        Act, the President, acting through the Administrator of the 
        Federal Emergency Management Agency, shall establish and 
        publish in the Federal Register alternative procedures for 
        States to obtain reimbursement for qualifying loan interest (as 
        such term is defined in section 431(b) of the Robert T. 
        Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, as added 
        by this Act) eligible under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 
        Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et. seq) 
        for all projects pending obligation as of the date of enactment 
        of this Act.
            (2) Application.--A State requesting reimbursement pursuant 
        to paragraph (1) shall submit an application to the President, 
        acting through the Administrator of the Federal Emergency 
        Management Agency, for outstanding qualifying interest 
        reimbursement not later than 60 days after the date of 
        publication of the procedures in such subsection.
            (3) Reimbursement timing.--In carrying out paragraph (1), 
        the President, acting through the Administrator of the Federal 
        Emergency Management Agency, shall reimburse States requesting 
        assistance pursuant to paragraph (1) not later than 1 year 
        after the date of enactment of this Act.
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