North state lawmakers have introduced a bill in Congress to prevent the Federal Emergency Management Agency from asking disaster victims to return financial assistance if the agency makes an error.
It requires FEMA waive debt instead of ask for compensation in cases where no fraud was committed but where the agency later determines the assistance was granted by mistake.
The California lawmakers who introduced the legislation on Tuesday are Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena). Rep Sam Graves, a lawmaker from Missouri who chairs the infrastructure committee in the House and Rep. Stacey Plaskett, a lawmaker from the Virgin Islands, also introduced the bill.
The bill is called the Preventing Disaster Revictimization Act. It also requires FEMA to report to Congress on the number of errors in its financial assistance program.
The proposal comes after FEMA has said it may ask wildfire victims to pay it back for some disaster-related expenses if they end up being covered by both the federal government and Pacific Gas & Electric, Corp. in an ongoing lawsuit. That move would come if FEMA does not get $3.9 billion directly from PG&E to cover some of the costs from the recent wildfires caused by the utility’s faulty equipment. FEMA says it is required to get compensation from entities that cause disasters under a federal law, called the Stafford Law.
“FEMA should not claw back the individual assistance they provide to those who also receive claims from the PG&E wildfire settlement,” said LaMalfa in a statement about the bill. “This money is negligible to FEMA, but to wildfire victims, it may be the leg-up they need to recover.”
