Sponsors (12)
The bill gives state and local grantees greater flexibility to use leftover FEMA management funds for preparedness, mitigation, or other disaster management over five years — improving local planning capacity but risking reduced funds for immediate recovery and effectively repurposing existing federal disaster dollars without new appropriations.
Local and state grantees (and nonprofit subgrantees) can keep and use leftover FEMA management-setaside funds for up to five years to build disaster preparedness or mitigation capacity or to cover management costs for other disasters, giving jurisdictions more flexibility in recovery and preparedness planning.
Grantees may apply excess management funds to management costs for other disasters or preparedness activities, increasing flexibility in multi-disaster recovery and allowing resources to be used where needs evolve.
A GAO reporting requirement will give Congress and taxpayers data on actual FEMA management costs and past uses of set-asides, improving oversight and enabling evaluation of whether current set-aside rules are appropriate.
Local and state grantees shifting excess management funds to other uses could reduce money available for direct disaster recovery operations, potentially slowing or weakening on-the-ground recovery for affected communities.
Because the bill does not authorize new appropriations, allowing broader uses of existing management set-asides effectively repurposes disaster dollars and could crowd out funding for other federal priorities.
Making unused management funds available for five years could delay returning those funds to the Treasury, reducing near-term federal budget flexibility for future disaster response or other spending priorities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes the President to allow grantees or subgrantees to use unspent FEMA disaster management cost funds (the difference between authorized management cost amounts and amounts actually spent at grant close) for building capacity to prepare for, respond to, recover from, or mitigate major disasters and emergencies, and for management costs tied to certain disaster preparedness and mitigation activities. Those excess funds remain available for five years after they are made available. Requires the Comptroller General to report within 180 days on actual management costs during major disaster declarations over the prior five years (including amounts set aside, uses, duration, and reasons). The bill makes administrative changes to existing statutory subsections and specifies that the changes apply to declarations and appropriations on or after enactment; it does not authorize additional appropriations.
Introduced January 28, 2025 by Joseph Neguse · Last progress January 28, 2025