Sec. 301 Treatment of drought under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act
Findings— Congress finds that—
the term major disaster (as defined in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122)) includes drought, yet no drought in the 30 years preceding the date of enactment of this Act has been declared by the President to be a major disaster in any of the States in accordance with section 401 of that Act (42 U.S.C. 5170);
a major drought shall be eligible to be declared a major disaster or state of emergency by the President on the request of the Governor of any State;
droughts are natural disasters that do occur, and while of a different type of impact, the scale of the impact of a major drought can be equivalent to other disasters that have been declared by the President to be a major disaster under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.); and
droughts have wide-ranging and long-term impacts on ecosystem health, agriculture production, permanent crops, forests, waterways, air quality, public health, wildlife, employment, communities, State and national parks, and other natural resources of a State and the people of that State that have significant value.
Amendment— Section 502(a) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5192(a)) is amended—
in paragraph (7), by striking “and”;
in paragraph (8), by striking the period at the end and inserting a semicolon; and
by adding at the end the following:
“(9) provide disaster unemployment assistance in accordance with section 410;
“(10) provide emergency nutrition assistance in accordance with section 412; and
“(11) provide crisis counseling assistance in accordance with section 416.”