House committee pushes FEMA reform plan as review council backs overhaul

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House pushes FEMA reform plan

Highlights

Chairman Sam Graves and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure advocate significant FEMA reforms to accelerate disaster recovery and address costly, bureaucratic inefficiencies.
The Fixing Emergency Management for Americans Act, introduced in July and advanced in September, prioritizes upfront grants over reimbursements and favors state-led disaster systems.
The FEMA Review Council's May 2024 report aligns with the committee's aims, supporting expedited mitigation funding and reformed aid delivery to disaster victims.

Reform plan gains support in Washington

As reported by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Chairman Sam Graves says FEMA needs significant reform to reduce loss of life, accelerate disaster recovery and lower costs for taxpayers.

In opening remarks for a hearing on disaster readiness, Graves says lawmakers have spent years trying to improve the agency through targeted legislation, including post-Katrina changes in 2006, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act in 2013 and the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018. He argues those efforts have not fixed core problems, pointing to thousands of open disaster projects dating back to Hurricane Katrina, growing disaster costs and a system that remains difficult for communities and lawmakers to navigate.

Graves says FEMA, despite its central role in preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery, remains slowed by red tape and bureaucracy. He adds that while the agency has capable staff, it needs a structure and tools that let them operate more effectively.

FEMA Act targets grants and state-led response

Graves says he and Ranking Member Rick Larsen released a discussion draft of the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans Act, or FEMA Act, last May and gathered input from more than 150 stakeholders, including state and local governments, emergency managers, nonprofits, industries and disaster victims.

He says the bill was formally introduced in July last year and later advanced by the committee in September after revisions. Graves adds that the FEMA Review Council, which completed its work in May of this year, reaches many of the same conclusions, including support for a state-led, locally executed and federally supported disaster system.

Among the shared priorities he highlights are replacing FEMA's reimbursement model for rebuilding with upfront grants, speeding mitigation funding and projects, and changing how aid reaches disaster victims. Graves says the release of the council's recommendations should help move the FEMA Act forward in Congress.

Our earlier coverage of the House’s financial services legislative package explained how lawmakers advanced three bills aimed at cutting operating costs and reshaping key rules in the financial system. We outlined proposals to end penny production, tighten fair-evaluation standards for failed-bank acquisition bids, and restrict payment-network merchant codes that could identify firearms retailers—framing the push as a mix of cost control, regulatory adjustment, and consumer-privacy policy.

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