LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that forces the Federal Emergency Management Agency to come up with a plan to remove thousands of trailers from the Hope Municipal Airport.

The bill, sponsored by Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, was unanimously approved Friday.

“FEMA continues to ignore the thousands of unused shelters sitting in fields across the country while taxpayers pick up the tab,” Pryor said. “It’s time to close this chapter. My legislation requires FEMA to make a decision about these homes and implement a plan to reduce excess units.”

Nearly 20,000 mobile homes and travel trailers are stored at Hope, where many have been kept since Hurricane Katrina struck three years ago. FEMA has more than 100,000 mobile homes and travel trailers in storage throughout the country, and many of the homes are unusable because of mold and other damage, Pryor said.

The three largest storage sites are in Lottie, La.; Hope; and Columbus, Miss.

The plan requires FEMA to decide within nine months whether to use, store, sell or throw away the housing units at Hope and other storage sites.

But the bill, passed by the Senate during the last hours of the congressional session, is unlikely to be considered by the House before Congress adjourns.

Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., sponsored companion legislation in the House.

Government red tape and concerns about formaldehyde levels in the trailers have kept them from being distributed.

Critics consider the unused mobile homes and trailers a hallmark of government waste.

FEMA spends more than $1 million a month to store and maintain the housing units in Hope. The agency employs 75 people at the site.