The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has run out of disaster relief funding for the second year in a row before the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season has even arrived.
The agency, which is funded by Congress, uses the disaster relief fund to aid state and local governments in preparing and recovering from natural disasters including earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires and hurricanes.
The DRF also provides financial assistance for the Individuals and Households Program which helps eligible disaster survivors with funding for temporary housing and other disaster-related expenses.
The United States has already faced 19 climate disasters this year with losses exceeding $1 billion each, according to FEMA.
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Destructive wildfires, which began in late June, ravaged the town of Ruidoso, New Mexico, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate and leaving at least two people dead. The cost of damages due to the South Fork Fire was estimated at $1.2 billion, according to FEMA.
FEMA approved more than $2.4 million in funding for New Mexico homeowners whose homes were devastated by the fires and subsequent flooding.
The agency also provided assistance to Texas residents who suffered losses after Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, hit the coast of the state as a category 1 hurricane on July 8, causing an estimated $6 billion in damages.
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Alejandro Mayorkas, the head of the United States Homeland Security Department, had warned back in June that FEMA’s disaster relief fund was expected to run out of money by mid-August.
The agency has faced funding challenges in previous years. Last August, FEMA exhausted their funds right before Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend as a powerful category 3 hurricane on August 30th.
Since 2001, FEMA has run out of funding on nine occasions, according to the agency's site.
So what does FEMA do when they run out of funding and what does that mean for future natural disaster recovery efforts? Here’s what you need to know:
Will FEMA stop responding to emergencies if there’s no funding?
Now that FEMA has exhausted their disaster funding, the agency has begun to implement their Immediate Needs Funding guidance - meaning they will redirect funds to immediate, life-saving recovery efforts and deprioritize other obligations like reimbursements for disaster activity.
“This ensures that FEMA can continue essential operations, prioritizes funding for critical ongoing disaster needs, while ensuring that we are prepared to respond immediately to new disasters,” a FEMA spokesperson told Telemundo.
During this period, FEMA will pause:
- New Public Assistance
- Hazard Mitigation
- DRF-funded BRIC obligations that are not essential for lifesaving and life-sustaining activities.
“Funding for other programs, such as public assistance and long-term mitigation projects have been paused, but not cancelled or terminated, as part of FEMA's current Immediate Needs Funding guidelines position,” the FEMA spokesperson clarified.
The INF will allow the agency to continue to provide funding for the following:
- Individual Assistance payments directly to survivors for critical needs and housing (for requests that have already been completed)
- Public Assistance for states, tribes, and territories essential for lifesaving and life-sustaining activities
- Mission assignments of Federal partners for critical response activities
- Fire Management Assistance grants, and essential ongoing disaster operations, including salaries of FEMA field staff
The agency officially began redirecting funds on August 7th.
When will FEMA receive more funding?
In October of 2023, the Department of Homeland Security had requested additional funding from Congress for the disaster relief fund, anticipating that funding was insufficient to meet response and recovery needs.
The Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Bill provided FEMA with $20.261 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund. It also provided $3.5 billion for grants and training to state, local, tribal, and territorial entities to help communities prepare for and respond to natural disasters.
FEMA is now hoping that Congress will pass a $9 billion supplemental request to provide additional funding. However, Congress is currently in recess through the end of August, delaying the agency’s request.
When FEMA ran out of funds in August of last year, they didn’t receive additional funding until October 2.
