The American Public Power Association recently submitted comments to the Republican and Democratic staff of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in response to the bipartisan discussion draft of the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act of 2025.
The discussion draft seeks to streamline the federal government’s disaster response and recovery programs while also making FEMA a cabinet-level agency once again. As described by the committee, the discussion draft “also rewards effective state and local preparedness, protects taxpayers, cuts red tape, and ensures that relief efforts are fast, fair, and free from political bias.”
APPA largely focused its comments on what it believes is the keystone to the proposal -- a shift of public assistance for permanent work from a cost-based reimbursement to an estimate-based payment.
APPA said the draft was written somewhat from the perspective of the building trades, and so part of its focus in commenting was to ensure that the mechanism would work for public power utilities as well.
APPA also asked the committee to clarify – either in the bill or in report language – that the committee intended the new estimate-based approach to avoid many of the current requirements imposed by FEMA -- for example a requirement that federal acquisition requirements be followed.
Conceptually, this approach provides a trade off, APPA said. Applicants face less regulatory risk and speedier reimbursement, but insofar as their actual costs exceed estimated projected costs, those additional costs would be borne by the applicant and not necessarily paid by FEMA, APPA said.
APPA also suggested that the new estimation process be extended to reimbursement for emergency work and debris removal as well.
APPA noted that its members have said the potential to avoid red tape and bureaucratic back and forth with FEMA make the cost estimation model highly attractive.
