Sponsors (3)
The bill increases transparency and clarity around federal disaster assistance—making it easier for governments, researchers, and affected households to track and access funds—but imposes new administrative burdens, potential privacy/security risks, and broader compliance requirements on agencies and recipients.
Taxpayers, researchers, journalists, and watchdogs get timely, quarterly, machine-readable federal disaster spending data that improves transparency and oversight of how federal disaster dollars are used.
State and local governments can track funding flows to specific projects using award IDs, FEMA catalog numbers, and ZIP codes, improving coordination, planning, and local recovery decisions.
Clearer, spelled-out definitions of eligible agencies and assistance types make it easier for state and local governments to identify which federal disaster programs apply and to access appropriate support.
Federal agencies and recipients will face increased administrative and IT costs to collect, standardize, and publish detailed quarterly data; a tight 30-day reporting deadline could further strain smaller agencies and divert staff time from program delivery or initial disaster response.
Publishing detailed project locations and award identifiers could create privacy or security risks for sensitive projects or recipients if data are not properly redacted or protected.
Broad definitions of covered assistance and disaster events could expand which programs and recipients are subject to new reporting and compliance requirements, increasing paperwork and administration for states, localities, nonprofits, and small businesses.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), working with the Treasury and other covered federal agencies, to create a dedicated subpage on the federal spending transparency website to publish standardized, machine-readable, quarterly reports on federal disaster assistance. Covered agencies must post detailed lists of awards and projects (including amounts, project descriptions, locations, award IDs, and completion status) within 30 days after each calendar quarter. The law defines which agencies and types of disaster assistance are covered, specifies that recipients are entities (not individuals), and allows OMB to contract with private entities to build the subpage and issue guidance to agencies to ensure consistent reporting.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Mike Ezell · Last progress January 15, 2025