S. 3502 would rename the Office of Equal Rights within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as the Office of Civil Rights, Equity, and Community Inclusion and would require the office to undertake additional activities with respect to disaster assistance for underserved communities. Specifically, the bill would require the office to:
• Develop more comprehensive measures to evaluate the effectiveness of disaster assistance provided to underserved communities,
• Establish an initiative to award grants to nonprofit entities that serve those communities,
• Coordinate with other federal agencies and other interested parties to improve the provision of disaster assistance to people with disabilities; and
• Report to the Congress every two years on the results of the new measures and on allegations of unequal disaster assistance investigated by the office.
