House panel votes to give small states FEMA advocate
Newly created position would be designed to work on behalf of a list of a group of states with small populations.
A federal advocate for disaster relief in rural areas of the nation's dozen smallest states would be created under a bill approved Thursday by a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee.
The Economic Development, Public Building and Emergency Management Subcommittee approved the measure (H.R. 2338) by voice vote.
The bill was prompted by denial of federal disaster aid after a flood damaged much of Kaycee, a town of some 250 persons in the home state of Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., the bill's sponsor.
Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, offered the only amendment, which increased the number of states covered. His measure, approved by voice vote, raised the minimum population from 1 million to 1.5 million, covering states with large rural populations.
The small state advocate that would work inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency would advocate for the fair disaster relief aid distribution in the following states: Wyoming, Vermont, and North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine and Idaho.
Some 80 percent of businesses and one-third of Kaycee's homes were damaged, but FEMA turned down the town's request for help because rules for qualifying for relief are tough for states with less than 1 million populations, Cubin said.
Subcommittee Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., said approval of the Rural Disaster Assistance Fairness Act of 2005 by his panel was testament to Cubin's persistence in pushing its passage.
The bill also calls for a study detailing the extent that existing disaster declaration regulations meets the needs for the dozen states covered and "comply with existing statutory restrictions on the use of formulas and sliding scales based on income or population."