Status of FEMA's FY03 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program

Gao ID: GAO-04-727R April 28, 2004

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides federal disaster assistance to help those in need respond to, prepare for, and recover from disasters. As the costs for disaster assistance have risen, FEMA has made disaster mitigation a primary goal in its efforts to reduce the long-term cost of disasters and minimize risk to property and individuals from natural or man-made hazards. Previous FEMA mitigation grant programs were formula-based and provided funds both prior to and after a disaster occurred. Fiscal Year 2003, marks the first-time FEMA has implemented a grant program that awards funds for mitigation activities on a competitive basis. This report presents information on (1) FEMA's processes and criteria for awarding planning and competitive pre-disaster mitigation grants to states and localities, and (2) the status of FEMA's efforts to implement the Fiscal Year 2003 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program.

We found, with regard to processes and criteria for awarding planning and competitive grant awards, that in 2003, Congress appropriated $150 million to initiate the implementation of a competitive pre-disaster mitigation grant program. This is the first-time FEMA has implemented a competitive mitigation grant program. The Fiscal Year 2003 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program included approximately $13.7 million for noncompetitive planning grants and approximately $131.5 million for competitive pre-disaster grants for mitigation activities and technical assistance. Each of the 55 states and territories were eligible to receive approximately $250,000 in noncompetitive grants. FEMA awarded the competitive grants based on a ranking and evaluation process. FEMA assessed the applications for the competitive mitigation grants for eligibility and technical feasibility. FEMA then ranked and evaluated the applications using both quantitative and qualitative factors for selection of competitive award grants. We also found, with regard to implementation of the Fiscal Year 2003 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program, that FEMA had obligated all of the $13.7 million in noncompetitive planning grants to 54 states and territories that applied. FEMA received 459 competitive grant applications. Approximately 40 percent of the competitive grant applications submitted by the states, tribes, and territories did not meet eligibility and technical feasibility requirements. FEMA attributes this to the short application period. FEMA identified 200 applications to award competitive grants. These applications have a value of $98.7 million and cover 37 states, 2 territories, and 6 tribes. FEMA expected to begin awarding the competitive grants mid-March 2004. FEMA plans to use lessons learned from the implementation of the Fiscal Year 2003 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program to improve the program in the future. These lessons include (1) implementing a longer application period, (2) sequentially reviewing grant applications to reduce inefficient use of resources, and (3) making the e-Grant application form standard with paper applications to reduce processing time.

GAO-04-727R, Status of FEMA's FY03 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program This is the accessible text file for GAO report number GAO-04-727R entitled 'Status of FEMA's FY03 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program' which was released on June 02, 2004. This text file was formatted by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) to be accessible to users with visual impairments, as part of a longer term project to improve GAO products' accessibility. Every attempt has been made to maintain the structural and data integrity of the original printed product. Accessibility features, such as text descriptions of tables, consecutively numbered footnotes placed at the end of the file, and the text of agency comment letters, are provided but may not exactly duplicate the presentation or format of the printed version. The portable document format (PDF) file is an exact electronic replica of the printed version. We welcome your feedback. Please E-mail your comments regarding the contents or accessibility features of this document to Webmaster@gao.gov. This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. It may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without further permission from GAO. Because this work may contain copyrighted images or other material, permission from the copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to reproduce this material separately. April 28, 2004: The Honorable Daniel K. Akaka: Ranking Minority Member: Subcommittee on Financial Management, the Budget and International Security: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs: United States Senate: Subject: Status of FEMA's FY03 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program: Dear Senator Akaka: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides federal disaster assistance to help those in need respond to, prepare for, and recover from disasters. As the costs for disaster assistance have risen, FEMA has made disaster mitigation a primary goal in its efforts to reduce the long-term cost of disasters and minimize risk to property and individuals from natural or man-made hazards. Previous FEMA mitigation grant programs were formula-based and provided funds both prior to and after a disaster occurred. Fiscal Year 2003, marks the first-time FEMA has implemented a grant program that awards funds for mitigation activities on a competitive basis. You asked us to review the status of FEMA's implementation of the Fiscal Year 2003 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program. This report presents information on (1) FEMA's processes and criteria for awarding planning and competitive pre-disaster mitigation grants to states and localities, and (2) the status of FEMA's efforts to implement the Fiscal Year 2003 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program. We reviewed fiscal year 2003 guidance, interviewed FEMA headquarters officials, and analyzed data regarding planning and project applications. To assess the reliability of the pre-disaster mitigation application and grant data presented in the briefing, we interviewed agency officials knowledgeable about the data and the system that produced them and reviewed existing information about the application process. We determined that the data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this briefing. We conducted our review from November 2003 through February 2004 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. We provided your staff with a formal briefing on March 12, 2004. This report includes the briefing slides used at the presentation and summarizes our findings and FEMA's lessons learned from the implementation of the Fiscal Year 2003 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program to improve the program in the future. In summary, we found the following with regard to processes and criteria for awarding planning and competitive grant awards: * In 2003, Congress appropriated $150 million to initiate the implementation of a competitive pre-disaster mitigation grant program. This is the first-time FEMA has implemented a competitive mitigation grant program. * The Fiscal Year 2003 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program included approximately $13.7 million for noncompetitive planning grants and approximately $131.5 million for competitive pre-disaster grants for mitigation activities and technical assistance. Each of the 55 states and territories were eligible to receive approximately $250,000 in noncompetitive grants. FEMA awarded the competitive grants based on a ranking and evaluation process. * FEMA assessed the applications for the competitive mitigation grants for eligibility and technical feasibility. FEMA then ranked and evaluated the applications using both quantitative and qualitative factors for selection of competitive award grants. In summary, we found the following with regard to implementation of the Fiscal Year 2003 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program: * FEMA had obligated all of the $13.7 million in noncompetitive planning grants to 54 states and territories that applied. * FEMA received 459 competitive grant applications. Approximately 40 percent of the competitive grant applications submitted by the states, tribes, and territories did not meet eligibility and technical feasibility requirements. FEMA attributes this to the short application period. * FEMA identified 200 applications to award competitive grants. These applications have a value of $98.7 million and cover 37 states, 2 territories, and 6 tribes. FEMA expected to begin awarding the competitive grants mid-March 2004. * FEMA plans to use lessons learned from the implementation of the Fiscal Year 2003 Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program to improve the program in the future. These lessons include (1) implementing a longer application period, (2) sequentially reviewing grant applications to reduce inefficient use of resources, and (3) making the e-Grant application form standard with paper applications to reduce processing time. We met with FEMA's Risk Reduction Branch Chief for Mitigation and other FEMA officials in the Mitigation Division to discuss the facts of this report. They generally agreed with the information in the briefing and provided some clarifying comments that we incorporated as appropriate. As agrred with your office, unless you publicly announce its contents earlier, we plan no further distribution of this report until 30 days from the date of this report. At that time, we will send copies of this report to the congressional committees and subcommittees responsible for issues related to FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, this report will be available at no charge on GAO's Web site at http://www.gao.gov. If you have any questions about this briefing or need additional information, please contact me at (202) 512-8757. Key contributors to this briefing were Chris Keisling, Kirk Kiester, and Mark Abraham. Sincerely yours, Signed by: William O. Jenkins: Director, Homeland Security and Justice: Enclosure: [See PDF for images] [End of figure]

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