Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) At a time of constrained budgets, it is fiscally prudent to understand the amount and the scope of the Federal Government’s involvement in providing disaster-related assistance to communities in need. (2) The Federal Government does not provide a single, publicly available estimate of the amount it is spending on disaster-related assistance. (3) Because recovery is a long-term process, providing disaster-related assistance requires significant Federal resources to support a multi-agency, multi-year restoration of infrastructure and commerce in affected communities. (4) Understanding the expenditures of individual Federal agencies for disaster-related assistance will help better inform the congressional appropriations process, as well as presidential budget requests. (5) Knowledge about disaster-related expenses will illustrate opportunities for reducing these expenses through efforts to reduce vulnerabilities to future natural disasters.