H.R. 3176 would establish a three-year statute of limitations on actions to recover certain improper assistance grants that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided to individuals following a declared disaster. Under current law, FEMA has the authority to recover disaster assistance grants at any time after the date of disbursement.
CBO estimates that H.R. 3176 would reduce FEMA’s recoupments of improper payments, which are recorded as reductions in direct spending, by $30 million over the 2018-2027 period. However, under current law, those amounts would be available for future disaster relief payments without further appropriation; thus, enacting the bill also would reduce direct spending by an equivalent amount, resulting in no net effect on direct spending over the next 10 years. Because fewer collections would be available to finance future disaster relief payments under the bill, H.R. 3176 would create a need for additional appropriations for those purposes. Assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost $30 million over the 2018-2027 period.
Because enacting the bill would affect direct spending, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues. CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
H.R. 3176 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.
