The House Appropriations Committee on June 11 approved the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, 2027, which would provide $34.1 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a $2 billion increase over the fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriation and $1.5 billion more than was requested by President Trump.
Specifically, the bill would provide $28.389 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund to support response and recovery efforts following major disasters and emergencies and $3.8 billion for grant programs and education, trainings, and exercises.
The bill includes a new provision mandating the issuance of Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) funding. It also targets the backlog of individual and public assistance requests stuck on “final review” at FEMA for 60 days or longer. Specifically for every day in which the number of such outstanding requests exceeds 500, the appropriation for the Office of the Secretary of Homeland Security would be cut by $100,000.
The measure passed on a party-line 34-27 vote, largely due to differences over other DHS programs. However, the FEMA-related provisions generally enjoyed broad bipartisan support.
In addition, APPA noted that it has been working with the Subcommittee on Homeland Security to be supportive of the FEMA oversight provisions included in the bill and the accompanying committee report.
LIHEAP
The committee also approved the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2027.
Under the measure, funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) would increase by $10 million to $4.055 billion. Again, while the bill itself passed on a party-line vote, there is strong bipartisan support for LIHEAP, which APPA strongly supports.
