Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) | Homeland Security

One of the most important jobs that the federal government is tasked with is responding to emergencies. America is a wonderful land, but as we have seen in recent weeks in places such as Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, and Texas, our weather patterns are violent and volatile. With widespread flooding, tornado outbreaks, and everything that goes with those, we saw the awesome power of nature in full swing. 

Disaster assistance is primarily a state issue, but sometimes the damage is too great for disaster response from state-level disaster response. In these cases, the state requests assistance from the Federal government, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the party responsible for all facets of aid and disaster relief. 

Let’s take a look at who FEMA is and what FEMA does for federal assistance and disaster relief. 

FEMA Mission

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is a dedicated and integral part of the United States government, primarily focused on helping people before, during, and after disasters. FEMA's unwavering role is to significantly reduce the loss of life and property and ensure the nation's safety from all hazards, including 

• natural disasters, 
• acts of terrorism, and 
• other man-made disasters. 

This commitment is demonstrated through various activities, including preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts.

FEMA works to build a culture of preparedness, helping individuals, communities, and the nation prepare for disasters. FEMA also plays an important role in coordinating the nation's response to disasters, providing emergency food, shelter, and medical care. 

FEMA is also the agency responsible for helping communities recover from disasters and providing financial assistance and support to rebuild homes, businesses, and infrastructure. Through mitigation efforts, FEMA works to reduce the long-term risk of disasters by identifying hazards and taking steps to reduce their impact.

Over the years, FEMA has responded to countless emergencies, but one thing that gets lost in translation is that they are also one of the main agencies responsible for CBRNE response. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is a crucial part of the United States government, primarily helping people before, during, and after disasters. FEMA's role is to reduce the loss of life and property and protect the nation from all hazards, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters. This is accomplished through a range of activities, including preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts.

FEMA works to build a culture of preparedness, helping individuals, communities, and the nation prepare for disasters. FEMA also plays a vital role in coordinating the nation's response to disasters, providing emergency food, shelter, and medical care to those in need. In addition, FEMA is responsible for helping communities recover from disasters providing financial assistance and support to rebuild homes, businesses, and infrastructure. Through mitigation efforts, FEMA works to reduce the long-term risk of disasters by identifying hazards and taking steps to reduce their impact.

History of FEMA

The concept of FEMA goes back many decades, to before the 1930’s. 

FEMA’s history can be divided into five eras. Before the 1930s, there was a patchwork approach to federal emergency management. From the 1930s to the 1960s, disaster relief fell under the Department of Housing and Urban Development. From 1973 to 1979, FEMA was an independent agency. From 1979 to 2003, FEMA was under the Department of Homeland Security. From 2003 to the present, FEMA’s organization is what we know today.

Prior to 1930s

Prior to the 1930s, all emergency response was handled by individual legislative actions This was, of course, very slow and cumbersome. The first recorded instance of federal relief was in the early 1800s in response to a series of devastating fires in the coastal region of New Hampshire. Over the next century or so, emergency legislation would be passed over one hundred times in response to natural disasters and other federal emergencies. Over the first century and a half of U.S. history, it was pretty obvious that this was not a tenable or long-term strategy. 

A Patchwork Approach to Federal Emergency Management (1930s–1960s)

The Great Depression had a profound impact on the overall economic and societal health of the United States. The U.S. was recovering from the impacts of World War I, which would claim the lives of over one hundred thousand American soldiers, hardly a minor detail. The Great Depression was a scant eleven years after Armistice Day.

Unfortunately, Civil Defense was largely depleted by war. Then you factor in the hardships of the dustbowl era, and you find a nation on the brink that could hardly afford major disasters, yet they came anyway. 

During this period of three decades or so, the U.S. government came to grips with the fact that the onus was on them to provide disaster relief for the states when the scale or scope was far beyond that of the local agencies to respond. However, the approach was far from a centralized process. The defunct Department of Roads would take on all damage to national highways and roadways due to natural disasters. 

In the 1940s, the Army Corps of Engineers took responsibility for all river flooding, dam building and repair, and building reservoirs to absorb river flooding. 

Department of Housing and Urban Development (1973–1979)

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) took charge of federal disaster relief and recovery from 1973 to 1979 through Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1973. This move led to the creation of the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration within HUD, which oversaw disaster management until its integration into FEMA in 1978. 

Before the implementation of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978, numerous government agencies were involved in disaster relief, leading to bureaucratic complexities. Congress expanded the scope of assistance categories over time through legislative and executive orders, defining qualifications and assigning responsibilities to various federal and non-federal entities. 

This resulted in a series of agency reorganizations, starting with the Federal Civil Defense Administration, which later transitioned to the President and then to various offices within different departments, eventually leading to the creation of FEMA in 1978. This consolidation was aimed at streamlining domestic preparedness efforts, although it was met with controversy.

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FEMA as an independent agency (1979–2003)

FEMA was established under the 1978 Reorganization Plan No. 3, which President Jimmy Carter activated via an Executive Order on April 1, 1979.

In July, Carter signed Executive Order 12148, transferring disaster relief efforts to the new federal agency. FEMA absorbed various entities, including the Federal Insurance Administration, the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, and the National Weather Service Community Preparedness Program. It also assumed oversight of the nation's Civil Defense function, previously managed by the Department of Defense's Defense Civil Preparedness Agency.

FEMA's early responses included addressing incidents like the toxic waste dumping at Love Canal in Niagara Falls and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. While these events demonstrated the agency's capability, they also revealed certain inefficiencies.

In 1993 President Bill Clinton appointed James Lee Witt as FEMA Director, leading to the agency's elevation to cabinet rank in 1996. Witt implemented reforms aimed at streamlining disaster recovery and mitigation processes, shifting focus from civil defense to natural disaster preparedness due to the end of the Cold War.

Congress further expanded FEMA's responsibilities over time, including dam safety, disaster assistance, earthquake hazard reduction, emergency food and shelter, hazardous materials management, and counterterrorism efforts in response to vulnerabilities highlighted by events like the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.

FEMA's funding is sourced from a combination of regular appropriations and emergency funding in response to specific events.

FEMA under the Department of Homeland Security (2003–present)

FEMA, operating within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since 2003, was a response to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which aimed to enhance coordination among federal agencies dealing with various aspects of national security. This move placed FEMA under the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate within DHS, marking a significant shift in its organizational structure. Despite rebranding as the Federal Emergency Management Agency again in 2007, FEMA remained within DHS.

During President George W. Bush's tenure, Michael D. Brown served as FEMA's director and was concerned about FEMA's integration into DHS. Brown warned that this restructuring could undermine FEMA's effectiveness in disaster preparedness and response, which was evident during the handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The aftermath of Katrina revealed systemic issues, including discrepancies in funding allocation for disaster preparedness versus counter-terrorism measures.

In response to the mismanagement allegations post-Katrina, the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) was transferred from DHS to the Department of Health and Human Services. Additionally, FEMA assumed coordination of the Ready Campaign, a public service initiative aimed at promoting emergency preparedness among Americans.

Subsequent legislative actions, such as the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 and amendments to the Stafford Act, further refined FEMA's role in disaster response and recovery. FEMA's responsibilities expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, including procuring medical supplies. 

As you can see, FEMA has come out of an extremely long evolutionary process

The Organization of FEMA

Hurricane Katrina was the first time where FEMA was really put to the test, and to be honest, they did not do well. In fact, the response was bad enough that some political leaders called for their ousting from the DHS. But that didn’t happen, and it remains one of the major agencies inside the DHS.

FEMA oversees the National Flood Insurance Program, while other programs it once managed have either been absorbed internally or transferred directly under DHS jurisdiction.

Within FEMA, the National Continuity Programs Directorate (formerly the Office of National Security Coordination) is responsible for developing, exercising, and validating agency-wide continuity plans. This includes overseeing readiness at facilities like the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center and coordinating continuity efforts across other Federal Executive Agencies.

Starting in 2007, FEMA administered the Center for Domestic Preparedness.

Additionally, FEMA manages the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), which allocates funding for enhancing the physical security of nonprofit organizations deemed at high risk of terrorist attacks.

Whatever scolding FEMA took post-Katina, they remain one of the most powerful agencies in the Federal Government. 

FEMA's Annual Budget

FEMA maintains a very large budget to deal with disaster assistance for emergencies that are catastrophic in scale. According to FEMA, their annual operating budget for FY2023 was $29.5 bn. 

Perhaps the most valuable and visible part of the FEMA budget to the average American citizen is the Disaster Relief Fund. This fund spends about $12 bn on average, which is used for:

• Restoration, repair, and replacement of damaged infrastructure items. 
• Clearing debris after natural disasters like floods, tornados, hurricanes, and blizzards
• Providing critical services in areas deemed emergencies.

The Disaster Relief Fund also helps cover the cost of home repairs and property replacement and Execute programs meant to lessen the impact of calamities in the future. 

The FEMA Regions

FEMA comprises ten unique regions to help deliver aid and keep homeland security issues localized to the specific region. Since the U.S. is so large and broad, this makes a ton of sense from the perspective of federal assistance. 

The FEMA leads in the region can better work with local emergency managers because they understand their area's specific needs and demands. 

Here are the regions, courtesy of FEMA:

• REGION I - CT, ME, NH, RI, VT J. W. McCormack POCB, Room 442 Boston, MA 02109-4595 (617) 223-9561 
• REGION II - NJ, NY, PR, VI 26 Federal Plaza, Room 1337 New York, NY 10278-0002 (212) 225-7209 
• REGION III - DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, WV 615 Chestnut Street 6th Floor Philadelphia, PA 19106 (215) 931-5608 
• REGION IV - AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN Koger Center - Rutgers Building 3003 Chamblee-Tucker Road Atlanta, GA 30341 (770) 220-5200 
• REGION V - IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI 175 West Jackson Boulevard, Fourth Floor Chicago, IL 60604-2698 (312) 408-5501
• REGION VI - AR, LA, NM, OK, TX Federal Regional Center 800 North Loop 288 Denton, TX 76201-3698 (940) 898-5399 
• REGION VII - IA, KS, MO, NE 2323 Grand Boulevard, Suite 900 Kansas City, MO 64108-2670 (816) 283-7061 
• REGION VIII - CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY Denver Federal Center, Building 710 P.O. Box 25267 Denver, CO 80255-0267 (303) 235-4812 
• REGION IX - AZ, CA, HI, NV Presidio of San Francisco, Building 105 San Francisco, CA 94129-1250 (415) 923-7100 
• REGION X - AK, ID, OR, WA Federal Regional Center 130 228th Street, SW. Bothell, WA 98021-9796 (425) 487-4604

Pre-Disaster Mitigation Programs

FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation programs (PDMs) fund states, U.S. territories, federally recognized tribes, and even local communities. The funds are used to conduct hazard mitigation planning and projects and reduce the overall risk for people and structures from future hazards. 

For example, the Gulf Coast will always have hurricanes, and around 50 million people live in that area, so PDMs help create plans to reduce the impact when they invariably happen. The same applies to tornadoes in the Great Plains and flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. There is no getting around it, and too much commerce occurs there to ignore it and leave the local communities to their own devices. 

FEMA takes the lead on funding and providing solutions through the PDM program. 

Bottom Line

FEMA is a massive agency that wields considerable power and sway in the Department of Homeland Security. The history leading up to the modern version of FEMA is long and storied, and what it has become is a far cry from its fairly humble origins. 

An organization as broad and sweeping as FEMA has huge procurement demands, and Greenwood Aerospace is here to help source and secure whatever they need. If you are in this position, call us, and we’ll go over our procurement solutions. Or, start an online quote, and we’ll get started! 

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