WASHINGTON (Jan. 31, 2024) – The Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) today unanimously passed Senators John Kennedy (R-La.) and Gary Peters’s (D-Mich.), chairman of HSGAC, Helping Eliminate Limitations for Prompt (HELP) Response and Recovery Act.
The bipartisan bill would enable the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to respond to disasters and other emergencies more efficiently and promptly.
“I’m glad to see that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed our common-sense solution to help the private sector and DHS work better together to respond to emergencies. I look forward to the Senate sending this critical bill to the House so that Louisianians and all Americans get the help they need when disaster strikes,” said Kennedy.
The HELP Response and Recovery Act would repeal Section 695 of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, which restricts the length of non-competitive DHS contracts for urgent and compelling requirements to 150 days. The repeal of this obsolete regulation ensures that DHS deadlines for emergency contracts follow current government-wide rules that allow contracts of up to one-year.
Text of the HELP Response and Recovery Act is available here.
