Sponsors (3)
Official title: To amend the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 to develop a study regarding streamlining and consolidating information collection and preliminary damage assessments, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Mike Ezell · Last progress January 14, 2025
The bill centralizes and modernizes disaster damage assessment and reporting to speed aid and increase transparency, while creating upfront costs, transition burdens for state/local partners, and potential privacy/security risks if data protections are insufficient.
State and local governments will have clearer, consolidated processes for collecting disaster-assistance information, reducing administrative burden and speeding the delivery of federal aid to affected communities.
Residents of harmed communities (rural and urban) may get faster damage assessments and repairs because the bill encourages use of emerging technologies (e.g., unmanned aircraft systems) to accelerate surveys and relief actions.
Taxpayers and policymakers gain better transparency because required public reporting and a machine-readable website make it easier to track federal disaster assistance awards and outcomes.
Applicants, grantees, and taxpayers face privacy and security risks if consolidated datasets are published without adequate redaction or protections for personally identifiable information.
Mandating centralized or single-agency damage-assessment processes could disrupt existing workflows, create transition costs, and temporarily slow state and local response operations.
Building and maintaining new data systems and public websites will impose federal costs that could be borne by taxpayers or divert funds from direct recovery assistance.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires FEMA to study and plan consolidation of disaster assistance data collection, convene an interagency working group, and publish a public report and website within two years.
Requires FEMA to study and produce plans within two years to streamline and consolidate how disaster assistance applicants and grantees provide information, and to create public reporting and a website for results. Directs FEMA to convene a recurring interagency working group to identify duplicate preliminary damage assessments, evaluate a single-agency assessment option, and explore technologies to speed assessments, and to publicly post one comprehensive report of findings and plans to Congress.