national association of counties presses for FEMA reforms

The National Association of Counties (NACo) has a new effort to get the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to reduce the complexity of its disaster recovery processes and also reform the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). See this article, New counties task force to demand disaster program reforms

Given that there is a new federal administration taking over shortly, there will be a window for reforms to happen very quickly—perhaps. My only warning on that front is “be careful what you wish for.” The current emphasis we are hearing about is on reducing the size and extent of the federal government’s reach. That could mean cutting staff at FEMA and the other concurrent effort is cost saving. One of the Project 2025 elements was shifting more of the cost of disasters onto state and local governments.

This latter effort is not the trend we have seen for many years. Rather we have seen an ever-expanding role and list of things that the federal government will do in disaster response and recovery. Maybe that will all be coming to an end. However, as much a some federal legislators rale against too much federal funding for this and that, they are all standing in line with their hat in hand when a disaster hits their jurisdiction. Cuts could be coming, and they could be painful for all phases of an emergency management program.