The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management held a hearing on May 17 entitled “The Impacts of FEMA’s Strategic Plan on Disaster Preparedness and Response.” The hearing focused on reform priorities for FEMA created last year in the agency’s strategic plan, including centering equity within FEMA programs, increasing resilience to climate change driven disasters, and ensuring that FEMA’s workforce can meet the agency’s needs.
Witnesses at the hearing included FEMA Deputy Administrator Erik Hooks and Chris Currie, Director of Homeland Security and Justice at the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
While Subcommittee Chair Perry and several GOP committee members sought to call out the FEMA’s focus on equity, with one member referring to having a focus on equity “absurd,” they also focused on decreasing the complexity of the disaster assistance process for disaster survivors – something that significantly limits the ability of households with low incomes to access the assistance for which they are eligible.
In general, questions from both sides of the aisle were technical in nature, with many questions regarding recent moves by FEMA to utilize forward facing disaster application assistance teams and provide more technical assistance to state and local governments seeking reimbursement for disaster expenses via FEMA’s Public Assistance program.
You can watch the hearing here: https://bit.ly/3IjaCWz
More information about disaster housing programs is on page 6-52 of NLIHC’s 2023 Advocates’ Guide.