S 3648 United States Senate · 118th Congress

HELP Response and Recovery Act

The HELP Response and Recovery Act (S 3648) repeals an outdated section (Section 695) of the 2006 Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act. This section imposed specific contracting requirements on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which Congress determined became obsolete due to updates in federal procurement rules, including changes from the 2009 Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act. The bill removes this redundant requirement, streamlining DHS contracting processes by eliminating rules no longer applicable under current Federal Acquisition Regulation standards. This change directly affects DHS contracting procedures but does not create new policy or alter broader emergency management practices.

Tags: Emergency Management

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2024

Committee Review

Mar 2024

Senate Passage

Mar 2024

House Passage

President

Introduced Jan 24, 2024 Last action Mar 21, 2024

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced in Senate → Engrossed in Senate · 4 edits · Mar 20, 2024

MODERATE

The bill was streamlined by removing a 'Sense of Congress' preamble from the repeal provision and correcting a public law citation error (109-225 to 109-295). More significantly, a new Section 3 was added requiring the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit annual reports to Congress for five years, detailing how the repeal prevented waste and fraud and providing specific data on FEMA no-bid contracts made under urgent circumstances.

TECHNICAL

The 'Sense of Congress' subsection expressing that section 695 was obsolete and should be repealed was removed. The engrossed version goes directly to the operative repeal language without the preamble.

Corrected the public law citation for the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act from 'Public Law 109-225' to 'Public Law 109-295', fixing a clerical error in the original text.

ENFORCEMENT

A new Section 3 requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit reports to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The first report is due within 540 days of enactment, then annually for five years.

REQUIREMENT

Each report must review how the repeal prevented waste, fraud, and abuse and promoted taxpayer savings, and must include specific data on FEMA contracts entered into under urgent and compelling circumstances without soliciting bids: the number of such contracts, their subject matter, amounts obligated, the state benefitted, and the name of the major disaster or emergency involved.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate. No roll call record of that vote is available.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 20, 2024

Upper · Passed

Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S2478; text: CR S2478)

upper

Mar 20, 2024

Upper · Passed

Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S2478; text: CR S2478)

upper

Mar 14, 2024

Upper · Passed

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Reported by Senator Peters with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. With written report No. 118-161.

upper

Jan 31, 2024

Upper · Passed

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.

upper

Jan 24, 2024

Committee

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

upper

Jan 24, 2024

Introduced

Introduced in Senate

upper

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor