Sponsors (5)
The bill makes FEMA displacement assistance more accessible and predictable—allowing disaster survivors to keep insurance payouts without losing FEMA aid—at the cost of higher federal spending and potential coordination issues and inequities between insured and uninsured households.
Displaced households (including low-income renters and homeowners) can keep private insurance payouts and still receive full FEMA displacement assistance (hotel/motel/family stays), reducing out-of-pocket costs and speeding access to temporary housing after disasters.
Clarifies that FEMA displacement assistance explicitly includes hotel/motel stays and staying with family, making eligibility determinations more predictable and easier for applicants to understand and for officials to administer.
Federal disaster spending will likely rise because FEMA can no longer offset displacement aid with insurance payments, increasing costs for taxpayers.
Insured households may end up receiving both insurance payouts and full FEMA displacement assistance while uninsured households rely only on FEMA, creating unequal outcomes between insured and uninsured disaster survivors.
Receiving both insurance and federal aid could create coordination and administrative challenges between insurers, applicants, and FEMA, complicating claims and assistance delivery.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Prevents insurance payments from being treated as duplication of benefits for federal disaster displacement housing assistance and defines displacement assistance to include hotels, staying with family/friends, and similar options.
Official title: To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to prohibit the President from considering insurance as a duplication of benefits for certain assistance under such Act.
Introduced February 26, 2025 by Julia Brownley · Last progress February 26, 2025
Amends the Stafford Act to clarify that insurance payments are not treated as a duplication of benefits when determining eligibility for federal displacement housing assistance. It also defines displacement assistance to explicitly include staying in a hotel or motel, staying with family or friends, and other available housing options, so those forms of short-term housing aid are covered by the statute.