By: Watson S.B. No. 921
 
 
 
   
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to the creation and administration of a disaster recovery
  fund.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Chapter 418, Government Code, is amending by
  adding Subchapter I to read as follows:
  SUBCHAPTER I. DISASTER RECOVERY FUND
         Sec. 418.201.  PURPOSE; INTENT.  It is the intent of the
  legislature that in recovering from a disaster, the first recourse
  of state and local governmental entities and volunteer
  organizations should be to the money regularly appropriated to
  those entities or money received by those entities from other
  sources in the normal course of operations. Assistance grants
  provided under this subchapter are intended to mitigate
  extraordinary burdens of state or local governmental entities and
  volunteer organizations in relation to available resources.
         Sec. 418.202.  DEFINITION.  In this subchapter, "fund" means
  the disaster recovery fund account.
         Sec. 418.203.  DISASTER RECOVERY FUND ACCOUNT.  (a)  The
  disaster recovery fund is an account in the general revenue fund to
  be administered by the division.  Money in the fund may be
  appropriated only for a grant awarded under this subchapter.
         (b)  The fund consists of:
               (1)  money credited, appropriated, or transferred to
  the fund at the direction of the legislature;
               (2)  federal money credited, appropriated, or
  transferred to the fund; and
               (3)  gifts and grants contributed to the fund.
         Sec. 418.204.  USE OF MONEY IN DISASTER RECOVERY FUND.  The
  division may award from the fund a grant to a state or local
  governmental entity or a volunteer fire department that
  participates in disaster recovery in an area where the governor has
  declared a state of disaster to assist in the payment of the
  entity's costs incurred for its recovery efforts. Money granted
  from the fund may be used only for:
               (1)  a nonfederal match required for a Federal
  Emergency Management Agency qualifying project;
               (2)  a disaster recovery project to remedy the public
  damage and direct loss incurred as a result of a disaster; and
               (3)  reimbursement of the entity for costs incurred by
  compensating its employees for disaster recovery-related
  activities that are performed in response to the disaster and that
  are outside of the scope of the employees' normal duties.
         Sec. 418.205.  APPLICATION FOR GRANT FROM DISASTER RECOVERY
  FUND.  The division shall develop and implement rules, procedures,
  and an application process for an entity to request a grant from the
  fund. An application for a grant must include:
               (1)  a description of the purposes for which the
  applicant is requesting the grant assistance;
               (2)  an estimated amount of the cost of the relevant
  damages sustained by the applicant as a result of the disaster,
  based on a preliminary damage assessment conducted by the applicant
  or other relevant information;
               (3)  a certification of the applicant's exhaustion of
  local effort, including evidence of an applicant's uninsured
  losses, anticipated revenues and expenditures, and projected
  losses in local revenue as a result of the disaster;
               (4)  evidence that the applicant is located in a county
  for which the countywide loss threshold has been exceeded because
  of the declared disaster, as calculated using the Federal Emergency
  Management Agency's countywide per capita impact indicator; and
               (5)  evidence that the applicant has staff, policies,
  and procedures in place adequate to administer the grant.
         Sec. 418.206.  POST-APPLICATION PROCEDURES.  (a)  On receipt
  of an application requesting a grant from the fund, and before
  awarding money in response to the application, the division shall:
               (1)  substantiate the damage estimate provided by the
  applicant;
               (2)  review the emergency management program and plan
  in the jurisdiction where the applicant is located;
               (3)  review the information on the staff, policies, and
  procedures in place to administer the grant submitted by the
  applicant; and
               (4)  verify that the program, plan, staff, policies,
  and procedures in place to administer the grant are adequate.
         (b)  The division shall prioritize grants and select grant
  recipients based on information provided by the applicants, other
  information available to the division, and criteria adopted by the
  division.
         Sec. 418.207.  REIMBURSEMENT OF FUND.  (a)  If an entity
  receives a grant from the fund and subsequently receives
  reimbursement from the federal government, an insurer, or another
  source for the costs for which the grant was awarded, then the
  entity shall reimburse the fund.
         (b)  The division shall prescribe accounting and other
  procedures as necessary to ensure that the fund is reimbursed as
  provided by Subsection (a).
         SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
  a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
  provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.  If this
  Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
  Act takes effect September 1, 2015.