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Washington, D.C., December 10, 2024 — H.R. 9541, the Promoting Opportunities to Widen Electrical Resilience (POWER) Act, will help communities recover from disasters, while they make investment to become more resilient in the future. The bill introduced by Reps. Val Hoyle (D-OR) and Rep. Mike Ezell (R-MS) makes two key improvements to the Stafford Act. First, communities could make hazard mitigation improvements during disaster recovery; and second, communities would not be precluded from hazard mitigation assistance for systems rebuilt during recovery. Collectively, the POWER Act reduces the painful choice between immediate response and long-term investments, allowing communities to restore power as quickly as possible, while also taking steps to mitigate against hazards in the future. The POWER Act is good for the economy, good for local communities, and good for public power customers.
H.R. 2672, the FEMA Loan Interest Payment Relief Act, would require FEMA to reimburse public power utilities and others for interest on loans to cover costs that will eventually be recovered from FEMA through disaster recovery public assistance grants. The legislation introduced by Reps. Neal Dunn (R-FL), Garrett Graves (R-LA), and Darren Soto (D-FL) is needed because while the cost of recovery must be paid immediately, FEMA can take years to repay them. Interest paid on loans to cover these costs benefit only the lender, taking money out of the community. The FEMA Loan Payment Interest Relief Act will reduce the drain of such interest payments on the community, the economy, and public power customers.
Every year, ice storms, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, and other disasters effect our communities. If the damage is severe enough to be declared a disaster by the President, then recovery costs are eligible for reimbursement through grants from FEMA. To reduce the likelihood of needing such assistance, FEMA also provides funds for hazard mitigation.