REAADI for Disasters Act

Key Points

• The bill requires that older adults and people with disabilities be included in disaster planning at every level of government and protected from discrimination based on age or disability during preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation. It enshrines standards of care and civil rights protections into federal law for these groups during disasters and public health emergencies.
• It creates a new Disaster Human Services Emergency Fund with 100 million dollars a year to rapidly provide personal care, accessible housing, transportation, nutrition, and case management to at-risk people after a disaster or public health emergency. It also funds staff to help people apply for disaster aid.
• Emergency alerts, evacuation orders, and disaster instructions funded with covered money must be accessible, including American Sign Language, other sign languages, Braille, captions, and plain language, so deaf, blind, and other residents get the same life-saving information.
• Housing and shelters built or prepared with covered disaster funds must meet visitability accessibility standards, and covered recipients must ensure shelters and services are accessible rather than segregating people with disabilities from their families.
• The bill sets up oversight bodies and a GAO investigation to check whether federal agencies followed disability civil rights laws when spending disaster funds since 2005, and expands the national advisory committee from 17 to 45 members.
• It authorizes competitive grants of 2.5 to 10 million dollars for training, technical assistance, and research centers, plus 300 million dollars a year for disaster preparedness grants, all requiring that people with disabilities hold leadership roles.