Disaster Community Development Needs Assessment Act of 2025

Section 1. Short Title. This Act may be cited as the ‘Disaster Community Development Needs Assessment Act of 2025’. Section 2. Purpose and Constitutional Authority. This Act is enacted pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 (the Spending Power to provide for the general welfare) and Clause 3 (to regulate interstate commerce affected by disasters). It is intended to provide Congress and the Executive with timely, standardized information on community development needs following major disasters, without imposing unfunded mandates on states. Section 3. Ongoing Community Development Needs Assessment. (a) The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall, within 90 days after a major disaster declaration under the Stafford Act, publish a preliminary assessment of unmet community development needs in the affected area. (b) The Secretary shall update this assessment quarterly for two years following the disaster, and annually thereafter for up to five years, or until the Secretary determines that all assessed needs have been addressed. (c) Assessments shall be based on voluntary data submissions from state, local, and tribal governments, supplemented by federal data sources, and shall not require any non-federal entity to submit data under penalty or condition of funding. Section 4. Use of Assessment. The assessment shall be transmitted to Congress and made publicly available. The Secretary may use the assessment to inform discretionary allocations from the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery program, but this Act does not create any entitlement or mandatory spending. Section 5. Funding. This Act is funded through annual appropriations of $5 million from the general fund of the Treasury for the first fiscal year, with subsequent years funded within existing HUD administrative accounts. Total authorized spending is capped at $25 million over five years. Section 6. Sunset. This Act shall sunset five years after the date of enactment, unless reauthorized by Congress. Any assessments in progress at the sunset date shall be completed within one year thereafter. Section 7. Oversight. The Government Accountability Office shall conduct a review of the assessments’ accuracy and usefulness three years after enactment, with a report to Congress. Section 8. Enforcement. No private right of action is created. The Secretary’s determinations under this Act are committed to agency discretion and are not subject to judicial review, except as required by the Administrative Procedure Act for arbitrary and capricious action. Section 9. Effective Date. This Act takes effect 60 days after enactment.