Sponsors (3)
The bill improves transparency and clarity around federal disaster assistance—helping governments, communities, and watchdogs detect waste and coordinate recovery—while creating new quarterly reporting costs, potential privacy/security risks, and the possibility of expanded eligibility that raises fiscal and administrative burdens.
Taxpayers, watchdogs, state and local governments, and nonprofits gain timely, machine-readable quarterly project-level data (award IDs, ZIPs, FEMA catalog numbers) that increases transparency and enables third-party analysis to detect waste, fraud, and duplicate aid.
Local governments, nonprofits, and affected communities (including rural areas) can better coordinate recovery and service delivery because project descriptions and completion status will be publicly available.
State and local governments and nonprofits get clearer definitions of covered agencies, eligible recipients, and what counts as a 'specified natural disaster,' reducing ambiguity about program applicability and improving planning.
State and local governments will face recurring quarterly reporting burdens and implementation costs to collect, standardize, and publish project-level data, increasing administrative workload and expense.
Broad, inclusive definitions of covered programs and disasters could expand the number of entities and events eligible for aid, increasing federal spending that is ultimately borne by taxpayers.
Using private contractors to develop and maintain the subpage may require taxpayer funds and create vendor-dependence or procurement risks.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires covered agencies to publish quarterly, machine-readable project-level disaster-assistance data on a dedicated FFATA subpage within 30 days after each quarter.
Creates a dedicated, public subpage on the federal FFATA transparency website where covered federal agencies must post quarterly, machine-readable data about disaster assistance. Agencies must publish total quarterly amounts, amounts obligated or expended, and a project-level listing (including project name, description, completion status, award ID, FEMA assistance catalog number, location including ZIP codes, and reporting metadata) within 30 days after each calendar quarter. The OMB Director will coordinate guidance with Treasury and agency heads and may contract with private entities to develop the subpage.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Mike Ezell · Last progress January 15, 2025