Legislation introduced Tuesday by a Louisiana Democrat that would enable the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help fund the rebuilding of public housing following disasters is expected on the House floor Wednesday.

“It’s going to be unanimous,” Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said.

The bill is expected to be considered under suspension of the rules, which bars amendment and requires a two-thirds majority for passage.

“As we have seen too often, the biggest obstacle that Gulf Coast residents face is not the will to rebuild; it is red tape from the federal government,” Don Cazayoux, D-La., said in a statement. “My bill provides a commonsense fix . . . that improves FEMA’s ability to directly assist public housing authorities trying to rebuild affordable and quality housing for those who need it. This measure is an important step in the long-term recovery of Louisiana and Mississippi.”

“The basic scheme is that FEMA does this for all public properties,” said Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the Financial Services Committee and a cosponsor of the bill (HR 6276). “Why shouldn’t it do it for public housing?”

The bill would repeal section 9(k) of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937, as amended, which authorizes the Department of Housing and Urban Development to pay for the repair of disaster-damaged public housing.

“It is really a move just to clear some red tape so that FEMA can do its job and so that local communities can be helped,” said Brad Morris, chief of staff for Rep. Travis W. Childers, another cosponsor.

Morris said FEMA has cited 9(k) as the reason the agency doesn’t allocate funding for public housing destroyed or damaged during natural disasters.

“Under Section 406 of the Stafford Act, FEMA is authorized to contribute to state and local governments for the repair, restoration, and replacement of damaged public facilities,” Carlos J. Castillo, FEMA’s assistant administrator for the Disaster Assistance Directorate, said in written testimony for a June 4 joint hearing before House Homeland Security and Financial Services Subcommittees.

“Under this authority, public housing authorities would qualify to receive FEMA Section 406 assistance if such assistance did not fall under another agency’s purview. When another federal agency is authorized by Congress to perform a specific response or recovery activity, FEMA defers to the agency specifically authorized to provide such services to avoid augmenting another agency’s appropriation.”

Section 9(k) allows HUD to provide “natural disaster grants to housing authorities,” among other things, Jeffrey Riddel, director of HUD’s Office of Capital Improvements, Public and Indian Housing, said in written testimony for the same hearing.

However, since 2000, Congress has prevented HUD “from using appropriated amounts under section 9(k) and separately appropriated a set-aside amount within the Capital Fund for emergencies and natural disasters,” Riddel wrote.

According to Riddel, in 2000 funding was $75 million, but had dropped to $18.5 million for 2008. “The current funding level of $18.5 million, while an increase from fiscal year 2006 and 2007 levels, would not be sufficient to meet the needs of disasters such as those that have occurred in recent years,” he wrote.

At the June 4 hearing, Frank argued that it didn’t make sense for FEMA to say it couldn’t provide money to HUD to rebuild public housing considering Section 9(k) hasn’t been funded.

In his written testimony, Riddel pointed out that President Bush’s recent budgets have proposed eliminating the portion of the 9(k) language that has prevented FEMA from providing funding to public housing authorities.

“We found this bureaucratic glitch,” Frank said. “We’re doing what the Bush administration recommends.”

Daniel Fowler can be reached at dfowler@cq.com.