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Improving Disaster Assistance for Veterans Act
To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to direct the President to designate a Veteran Advocate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and for other purposes.
Summary
This Act amends the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to establish a Veteran Advocate position within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Veteran Advocate will serve as an advocate for fair treatment of veterans in disaster assistance provision. The Veteran Advocate's duties include participating in disaster and emergency declaration processes to address veteran needs, serving as a liaison between veterans service organizations and FEMA, and identifying opportunities for veteran recruitment to FEMA positions. The bill clarifies that it does not authorize any new types of disaster assistance beyond what is currently authorized.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Rep. Barrett, Tom [R-MI-7] (R-MI)
2 cosponsors
- Rep. Gillen, Laura [D-NY-4] (D-NY)
- Rep. Neguse, Joe [D-CO-2] (D-CO)
Actions (3)
- Jul 18, 2025 Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management. · house
- Jul 17, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. · house
- Jul 17, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
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Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 17, 2025
Mr. Barrett introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
A BILL
To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to direct the President to designate a Veteran Advocate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Improving Disaster Assistance for Veterans Act”.
SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF VETERANS ADVOCATE.
(a) In General.—Title III of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (15 U.S.C. 5141 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“SEC. 328. DESIGNATION OF VETERAN ADVOCATE.
“(a) In General.—The President shall designate in the Federal Emergency Management Agency a Veteran Advocate.
“(b) Responsibilities.—The Veterans Advocate shall be an advocate for the fair treatment of veterans in the provision of assistance under this Act.
“(c) Duties.—The Veterans Advocate shall—
“(1) participate in the disaster declaration process under section 401 and the emergency declaration process under section 501 to ensure that the needs of veterans are being addressed;
“(2) serve as the primary point of contact between veterans service organizations and the Federal Emergency Management Agency;
“(3) identify opportunities for expanded veteran recruitment for Federal Emergency Management Agency employment, including Federal Emergency Management Agency reservist positions; and
“(4) conduct such other activities as the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency considers appropriate.”.
(b) Statutory Construction.—Nothing in this section or the amendment made by this section shall be construed to authorize major disaster or emergency assistance under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.) that is not authorized as of the date of enactment of this Act. <all>
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