Following Maui Fires, Schatz Leads Hearing To Push For More Immediate, Consistent Relief Funding For Local Communities Impacted By Natural Disasters

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, led a hearing today to underscore the need for immediate relief funding for local communities impacted by natural disasters. Schatz is the author of the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act (S.1686), bipartisan legislation that would strengthen the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) disaster recovery program and help provide more immediate help for states, local governments, and tribes in the wake of a natural disaster.

“This past summer, Lahaina on the island of Maui experienced the nation’s deadliest wildfire in over a century. The fire killed a hundred people and decimated entire neighborhoods; 2,200 structures, most of which were homes, were destroyed. For four months now, almost 7,000 people have been shuffling from one hotel to the next. For many, rebuilding and recovery is still years away as debris removal is extensive and complex,” said Chair Schatz. “Lahaina is just one example. Every community devastated by a disaster deserves help. Help that is timely, predictable, consistent, and proportional to the needs of the recovery. And so while Congress took an important step in September to fund FEMA disaster relief, much more is needed in programs like the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program. FEMA is only one piece of the puzzle.”

Working closely with the Biden Administration and congressional leaders, Schatz has led efforts to bring federal resources to Maui. To date, Hawai‘i has received more than $412 million in federal funding for the response to the fires, including more than $300 million in direct assistance to survivors from FEMA and the Small Business Administration.

The following witnesses participated in the oversight hearing:

• U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.)
• Shaun Donovan, CEO and President, Enterprise Community Partners
• Jennifer Gray Thompson, Founder and CEO, After the Fire USA
• Ran Reinhard, Director of Operations, South Carolina Office of Resilience

The full video of the oversight hearing is available here.

The full text of Chair Schatz’s opening remarks as prepared for delivery follows.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I want to welcome our witnesses to the subcommittee, and thank Ranking Member Hyde-Smith for her continued partnership and commitment to this important issue.

Before we begin, I want to take a moment to extend my sympathies to all the families affected by the recent tornados across the south this weekend that left six dead in Tennessee, and thanks to all the first responders who have been engaged in search and rescue.

Providing timely relief to communities recovering from disasters is one of our most fundamental responsibilities as United States Senators. Disasters, driven by climate change, are getting more frequent and more severe and they’re wreaking untold havoc on Americans all across the country.

This year alone, we’ve had 25 extreme weather and climate-related disasters, which have claimed hundreds of lives and each cost over a billion dollars in damages. As survivors navigate the long and arduous process of recovery, they can’t afford to wait to get help. And so today, we’ll hear from our witnesses who all have extensive experience working on disasters about how Congress can better serve recovery needs.

This past summer, Lahaina on the island of Maui experienced the nation’s deadliest wildfire in over a century. The fire killed a hundred people and decimated entire neighborhoods; 2,200 structures, most of which were homes, were destroyed. For four months now, almost 7,000 people have been shuffling from one hotel to the next. For many, rebuilding and recovery is still years away as debris removal is extensive and complex.

Lahaina is just one example. Every community devastated by a disaster deserves help. Help that is timely, predictable, consistent, and proportional to the needs of the recovery. And so while Congress took an important step in September to fund FEMA disaster relief, much more is needed in programs like the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program. FEMA is only one piece of the puzzle.

Congress has provided nearly $100 billion to HUD’s CDBG-DR program over the last 30 years. These funds have helped communities in nearly every state in the country rebuild after disasters. At its best, the program provides needed resources to help the most impacted communities recover. But the way we currently run it doesn’t make sense.

By failing to authorize CDBG-DR, we force HUD to rewrite rules for funding every time we finally get around to providing funding, meaning communities are left waiting months or years for aid to arrive.

And without certainty about when and how much aid will come, local governments end up doing some things twice and other things not at all. From a governance standpoint, it’s wasteful and inefficient. And for survivors, the uncertainty and delays make the already-difficult task of recovery even harder.

That has to change. The bill I’ve introduced along with Senators Hyde-Smith, Murray, Collins, and others would permanently authorize the CDBG-DR program, enabling communities to plan faster and with greater clarity…and ultimately, recover faster. Communities like West Maui that are in the throes of recovery need to know what resources they have to work with, so they can make the best possible decisions for rebuilding.

We can create a win-win scenario for everyone – all by streamlining the funding process.

I’ll close by reiterating: disasters-stricken communities like Lahaina desperately need help. It’s our responsibility here in Congress to provide at least the $2.8 billion request of the Administration quickly, and do it in a way that sets them up for success in the long run. And with that, I’ll turn it over to Ranking Member Hyde-Smith for her opening statement.

###