Sponsor
Peter Welch
Senator · D-VT
Senator · D-VT
Official title: Enhance local capacity and expand local control over the disaster response, recovery, and preparedness process, to guarantee stable Federal funding streams for disaster-impacted communities, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 10, 2025 by Peter Welch · Last progress July 10, 2025
The bill directs significantly more, faster, and more predictable federal mitigation funding and administrative support to states, tribes, and localities—especially low‑capacity areas—while increasing federal spending and creating tradeoffs around oversight, equity of allocations, and administrative complexity.
State, Tribal, and local governments (and the communities they serve) get more predictable, dedicated mitigation funding through mandated set‑asides, minimum annual obligations, and guaranteed per‑recipient minimums, making multi‑year planning and mitigation projects more feasible.
State, Tribal, and local grantees receive faster access to cash through larger advance payments and accelerated management-cost disbursements (higher advance percentages and staged payments), improving immediate recovery and administrative capacity.
Low‑capacity jurisdictions can receive much higher federal cost shares (up to 85%) for hazard‑mitigation projects, reducing local fiscal burdens and enabling projects that otherwise might not be affordable.
Taxpayers and the federal budget face higher costs from new authorizations, higher federal cost shares, increased advance payments, and expanded management reimbursements, adding pressure on the budget and forcing tradeoffs with other priorities.
Large advance payments and expanded reimbursement rules (including very high prepayments and above‑cost reimbursements) raise the risk of fraud, waste, and mismanagement unless oversight and safeguards are significantly strengthened.
Delegating capacity determinations to Governors or chief executives and tagging jurisdictions as 'low‑capacity' risks inconsistent classifications across states, unequal access to assistance, and stigma that could affect future funding or insurance costs for affected communities.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Expands FEMA mitigation and Public Assistance authorities: funds State mitigation offices, raises advance payments and management-cost rates, increases predisaster set-asides, and adds training, pilot assistance, and transparency rules.
Strengthens and accelerates FEMA disaster response and hazard-mitigation programs by creating and funding State hazard mitigation offices, raising advance and management-cost payments for Public Assistance, expanding advance public assistance options, creating training and technical-assistance pilots, and requiring transparency when federal disaster disbursements are paused. The bill also clarifies who counts as low- and high-capacity jurisdictions, adjusts cost-share and set-aside rules to prioritize predisaster mitigation, and requires FEMA rulemaking, guidance, and reports to Congress on implementation and program reform.