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Committee pushes back — rolls disaster‑grant procurement exemption for further review
Summary
Senate Bill 1778, which would exempt certain disaster grants from procurement code requirements to speed relief, drew concerns about fraud and oversight and was rolled one week to allow TEMA, the comptroller and counsel to refine safeguards. Comptroller Jason Mumpower testified he was comfortable with audit authority remaining in place.
Senate Bill 1778, a measure to streamline distribution of disaster grants by exempting them from some procurement requirements, was not advanced today. Committee members pressed authors and agency staff for more detail on what procurement checks would be removed and what audit and conflict‑of‑interest safeguards would remain in place.
Chairman Crow said the bill aims to remove procurement bottlenecks that delay funds after federal disaster declarations. Austin Travis, legislative liaison for TEMA, told the committee the procurement process is built for predictable grants and that in disasters administrators cannot know award counts or maximum amounts up front; he said the legislation removes front‑end procurement constraints while preserving post‑award audit obligations. "The procurement process as it exists right now is built for typical grant type things," Travis said.
Members repeatedly warned that new money in emergencies is a high fraud risk, asking whether the bill simply "exempts them from the law" without creating standards to audit against. Jason Mumpower, Tennessee Comptroller, told the committee he does not believe the bill "dilutes our audit authority at all" and argued the comptroller's office remains well positioned to detect fraud even under a streamlined emergency delegation. After discussion the committee voted to roll the bill for one week to get additional input from counsel and the comptroller's office.
