Congress must act quickly to replenish the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) when it resumes legislative work on September 9, 2024. This is crucial to ensure the federal government has the necessary financial resources at its disposal to help communities cope with disasters, especially as we enter peak hurricane and wildfire season.
The DRF pays for major Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) programs that help state, local, tribal, and territorial governments (SLTTs) and private nonprofits (PNPs) in responding to, recovering from, and mitigating the harmful effects of disasters. Specifically, the DRF funds:
- Public Assistance (PA) – FEMA’s largest program to help SLTTs and PNPs post-disaster;
- Most hazard mitigation and resilience grants, including Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP); and
- Individual Assistance (IA) – support to affected individuals and households.
How We Got Here
Over many months, the Biden-Harris Administration and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell have worked with Congress to secure $9 billion for the DRF to meet funding needs of recovering communities nationwide. This funding was intended to last through September 30, the end of federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2024; however, in April, Administrator Criswell testified before the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Homeland Security that without extra DRF funding, FEMA would need to restrict payments to recovering communities.
In June, Florida Representative Jared Moskowitz (D) introduced a bill in the House to inject $7 billion into the DRF, but it had not received consideration by the time Congress adjourned in late July.
Additionally, last month, Hagerty’s Senior Advisor for Community Recovery and former Senior Executive at the United States (US) Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Stan Gimont, co-authored a piece, published by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), summarizing outstanding requests by the Administration to pass supplemental disaster assistance funding, including the DRF. Of the major federal programs that require more funding, Gimont wrote, “the most pressing funding need is for the DRF.”
Because the DRF was projected to be depleted by late August, and Congress adjourning without passing new funding, FEMA paused all new funding to its largest disaster response, recovery, and resilience programs on August 7, 2024, to preserve the remaining balance. To do this, FEMA used a mechanism called Immediate Needs Funding (INF), which limits DRF spending to only lifesaving and life sustaining measures for new disasters.
Implications for Recovering Communities
The longer INF is in place, the greater the adverse downstream effects will be to local communities recovering from past disasters. FEMA is currently pausing billions in projected spending for ongoing construction to repair and harden damaged infrastructure; reimbursements to cities, states, and counties for storm debris removal; and costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, among other critical disaster work. Protracted INF could result in cascading community impacts, such as delays in scheduled infrastructure repair projects. For example, if a state or local government scheduled a construction project to repair disaster-damaged infrastructure on the premise that FEMA would obligate PA funding for that project next month, they may need to make a difficult decision to delay that project until PA obligation. Moreover, there will be less ability for FEMA to support response and recovery if there is a catastrophic event this season – a risk the country cannot afford.
What Comes Next?
Congress can replenish the DRF through several methods. Historically, this has involved a multi-step process. Last year, two funding tranches replenished the DRF:
- Continuing Resolution (CR) [P.L. 118-15]: In September 2023, Congress added $16 billion to the DRF to be available until FEMA expended it, rather than being timebound as is typical for CRs that extend the previous fiscal year’s budget. It also prompted FEMA to lift the INF pause it had put in place in August 2023.
- Fiscal Year 2024 [P.L. 118-47]: Through regular appropriations, Congress provided an additional $20 billion for the DRF, nearly all of which has been expended save the small reserve that is now being held to address INF needs.
In the coming weeks, Congress has options for how it approaches DRF: adding substantial DRF funding to a CR to extend government funding into FY 2025, passing supplemental funding focused solely on the DRF, or combining DRF funding with regular appropriations. Yet, it is likely that more than one appropriation bill will be needed to fully fund the DRF for FY 2025.
Hagerty urges Congress to prioritize the DRF by at least passing short-term funding, allowing FEMA to lift INF, and enabling communities to be better positioned to respond to this hurricane and wildfire season, should they be required to do so. As disasters continue to intensify and stress the capacity of communities nationwide, the DRF, and the response, recovery, and mitigation efforts it funds, should not be affected by budgetary delays or partisan disputes.
Ari Renoni, Deputy Director of Recovery, is an emergency management professional with more than 15 years of experience working to strengthen public sector organizations. He has a deep familiarity with federal disaster recovery programs and is a subject matter expert in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Public Assistance (PA) policy.