Federal Disaster Assistance: Federal Departments and Agencies Obligated at Least $277.6 Billion during Fiscal Years 2005 through 2014

Abstract

Each year, the federal government obligates billions of dollars through programs and activities that provide assistance to state and local governments, tribes, and certain nonprofit organizations and individuals that have suffered injury or damages from major disaster or emergency incidents, such as hurricanes, tornados, or fires. While FEMA tracks DRF spending related to major disasters and emergencies declared under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, there has not been a systematic effort to account for federal obligations for disaster assistance outside of the DRF. The Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, includes a provision for GAO to report on disaster assistance expenditures by the federal government. This report identifies federal disaster assistance programs and activities across 17 federal departments and agencies and the obligations for these programs and activities, where available, during fiscal years 2005 through 2014. To conduct this work, GAO selected 17 federal departments and agencies identified in the National Planning Frameworks as having responsibility for leading or coordinating federal efforts to mitigate, respond to, and recover from domestic disaster incidents. GAO analyzed documents identifying and describing disaster assistance programs and activities, interviewed federal officials, and distributed a data collection instrument to obtain, among other things, obligation amounts associated with each program or activity identified.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2016
Accession Number
AD1174085

Entities

People

  • Aaron Safer-lichtenstein
  • Amanda Miller
  • Ashley Rawson
  • Carissa Bryant
  • Chris P. Currie
  • Eli Harpst
  • Eric Hauswirth
  • Heidi Nielson
  • Hugh Paquette
  • Kathryn Godfrey
  • Tracey King

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Engineered Resilient Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Climate Change
  • Congress
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Disasters
  • Emergency Response
  • Employment
  • Environmental Protection
  • Fish
  • Flood Control
  • Fungi
  • Geography
  • Health Services
  • Humanitarian Assistance
  • Information Systems
  • Interagency Coordination
  • Management Personnel
  • Medical Personnel
  • Personnel Management
  • Sea Level Rise
  • Storm Surges
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
  • Government Contracting/Procurement.
  • Government and Public Administration Law.