On May 7, the president’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Review Council released its final report, containing several recommendations spanning the full lifecycle of disaster management. The council’s guiding principle, repeated throughout the report, is that disaster response should be “locally executed, state managed, and federally supported,” with states, tribes, and territories (STTs) taking on greater responsibility for managing recovery and FEMA acting as a smaller, supporting partner.
This brief focuses on recommendations affecting Public Assistance (PA), the primary source of federal disaster relief funding for state and local governments. Key proposed changes include:
- Replacing PA with a new grant called the Reformed and Partnered Initiative for Disasters (RAPID), which would deliver a single, up-front payment to STTs within 30 days of a disaster declaration, with the amount set by formula rather than site-by-site damage assessments.
- Shifting administration to STTs, which would certify project eligibility and use their own environmental, procurement, and audit standards in place of federal requirements.
- Raising the per capita indicator used to evaluate major disaster declarations, likely resulting in fewer declarations, and adding a new annual minimum-expenditure requirement that states would need to satisfy before requesting a declaration.
- Reducing the default federal cost share to 50% (with the ability to earn up to 75% through performance metrics, or 100% at presidential discretion).
The most consequential recommendations, including the replacement of PA, would require congressional action. However, some elements could be implemented through regulation or executive action.