December 22, 2017 - On Thursday, U.S. Representative Jeff Denham (CA-10) included his cost-saving FEMA reforms, initially introduced as the Supporting Mitigation Activities and Resiliency Targets for Rebuilding Act (SMART Rebuilding Act), in the 
emergency wildfire aid bill for California.
“This is the third disaster recovery bill, now totaling almost $133 billion in resources passed in response to catastrophic wildfires and hurricanes in 2017, and the second influx of funding specific to California recovery totaling over $5 billion in aid. Until now, federal resources were spent rebuilding the same structures in the same disaster-prone places,” said Rep. Denham. “My policies will provide resources and incentives for communities to plan for the next event by mitigating future damages to save lives and taxpayer dollars. These are disaster prevention reforms that represent a wise investment.”
Rep. Denham introduced the SMART Rebuilding Act on Nov. 21, 2017. The SMART Rebuilding Act provisions were included in the Disaster Recovery and Reform Act, which was incorporated in today’s supplemental funding package. These provisions incentivize and enable states and communities to build more resiliently both before and after disaster strikes by increasing the federal cost share for communities that adopt mitigation measures, establishing a National Public Infrastructure Pre-disaster Mitigation Fund to allow states and communities the ability to improve infrastructure, and including building standard implementation and enforcement in the FEMA Public Assistance post disaster program.
According to FEMA, every $1 invested in mitigation results in $4 in disaster cost savings for our taxpayers. This year alone we have seen mass destruction from large-scale wildfires, hurricane winds and flooding, costing the American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in disaster relief. This bill would save lives and money by building up our resiliency to natural disaster across the nation before trouble is at our door.
Rep. Denham has a proven legislative record with congressional disaster response. He authored the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013 (SRIA), which was signed into law on Jan. 29, 2013 to address inefficiencies in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) programs that slow down and increase costs of recovery. The measures helped communities and tribes recovering from Hurricane Sandy but were written with future disasters in mind, such as the 2017 wildfires and hurricanes.
SRIA was signed into law with the Disaster Supplemental under Rep. Denham’s leadership as the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Emergency Management, and it established procedures where local governments can accept recovery grants based on fixed, capped estimates, with the flexibility to spend the money in the best way possible as determined by locals.
While SRIA has been a huge success, the initial project limit of $120,000 has proven to be too low for major disasters. On March 27, 2017, the House passed H.R. 1214, the Disaster SAVE Act, which Rep. Denham co-sponsored, to increase the disaster assistance threshold to $500,000. With costs soaring in the billions, states would benefit from the red-tape reductions that this bill presents. The bill awaits action in the Senate.
Source: Congressman Jeff Denham