Sponsors (2)
The bill makes disaster assistance decisions more transparent and targeted—and even reopens some past denials—at the cost of reducing FEMA's discretionary flexibility, risking penalization of previously aided or insured areas, and adding administrative burden from retroactive application.
State and local governments will receive a clear, transparent weighted formula to evaluate Public and Individual Assistance requests, reducing subjective denials and making award decisions more consistent.
Low-income, rural, and other high-need communities (for example, areas with low assessable tax base or higher poverty) are more likely to be prioritized for Public Assistance because the bill explicitly weights localized economic need.
Individuals in areas with concentrated damages, trauma, or special populations will get clearer consideration for Individual Assistance due to a specified 20% weighting for those criteria.
State and local applicants may lose FEMA's case-by-case flexibility because rigid percentage weights constrain agency discretion, risking poorer outcomes in unusual or complex disasters.
Communities that previously received assistance or have higher insurance penetration may be penalized under weightings for insurance coverage and past aid, even when unmet needs persist.
Applying the new rules retroactively could create substantial administrative burdens and delays as FEMA and states re-open and re-evaluate past denied requests, straining agency and state resources and slowing current decisions.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires FEMA to use specified numeric weights when evaluating need for Public and Individual Assistance and to apply the new rules to denials back to Jan 1, 2012.
Directs FEMA to rewrite the agency’s disaster-declaration rules to use specific, weighted numeric criteria when deciding whether communities qualify for Public Assistance and Individual Assistance under the Stafford Act. The agency must issue the amended rules within 120 days of enactment and apply the new criteria to any Governor’s major disaster request that was denied on or after January 1, 2012.
Introduced February 24, 2026 by Richard Joseph Durbin · Last progress February 24, 2026