119th (2025–2027)
S. 3895
This bill requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to establish new rules for deciding when states and communities qualify for federal disaster assistance. Within 120 days of passage, FEMA must create specific weighted formulas for evaluating both public assistance (for infrastructure and government facilities) and individual assistance (for residents). For public assistance, the new criteria would weigh localized impacts most heavily at 40 percent, along with factors like disaster costs, local economic conditions, and previous disasters. For individual assistance, concentration of damages, trauma, and special populations would each count for 20 percent, with considerations for insurance coverage and local economic circumstances making up the rest. The new rules would retroactively apply to any disaster declarations that states requested since January 1, 2012 but were denied, potentially opening the door for previously rejected requests to be reconsidered under the fairer standards.