Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act
The Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act would require an official study to reshape how information is collected from disaster assistance applicants and grantees, with the goal of making the process less burdensome, more streamlined, and better coordinated across federal agencies. It directs the Administrator (presumably FEMA) to work with the Small Business Administration, HUD, and others to develop a plan to modify information collection and to establish regular, publicly available reporting on federal disaster assistance, including a website presenting the data. It also creates a working group to examine preliminary damage assessments (PDAs)—the initial evaluations used to gauge disaster impact and funding needs—and to explore whether a single federal agency could handle PDAs for all agencies and how emerging technologies (e.g., drones) could speed these assessments, all while complying with existing law. A comprehensive report combining these plans and findings would be sent to Congress and publicly released, with a briefing to follow within 180 days of the report’s submission. The act also makes a technical amendment to update the Congressional table of contents.
Key Points
- 1Information collection reform: Requires a two-year plan to streamline, consolidate, and simplify the collection of information from disaster assistance applicants and grantees, making the process less burdensome and less duplicative, while establishing a regular information reporting system and a public-facing website.
- 2Preliminary Damage Assessments (PDAs): Requires forming a working group with multiple federal agencies to identify duplication in PDAs, evaluate the feasibility of a single agency performing PDAs for all agencies, and assess the use of emerging technologies (such as unmanned aircraft systems) to speed PDAs, aligned with applicable law.
- 3Comprehensive, public report: Administered by FEMA, the report will combine the information-collection plan and PDA findings, and will be submitted to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, with the public release and machine-readable formats where feasible.
- 4Public accessibility and data use: The comprehensive report must be publicly available, downloadable in multiple formats, and machine-readable when applicable; it can draw on any relevant publications, databases, or other information from government or non-government sources.
- 5Timelines and briefing: Deadlines set include a two-year window after enactment to complete the study and plans, and, within 180 days after submission of the comprehensive report, FEMA and a designated IG representative must brief the relevant congressional committees on findings and recommendations.