Press Releases

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee today approved legislation to provide the most robust legislative reform of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and federal disaster assistance programs in decades. 

The Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act of 2025 (H.R. 4669) streamlines the federal government’s disaster response and recovery programs while also making FEMA a cabinet-level agency once again that is directly accountable to the President.  The bill rewards effective state and local preparedness, protects taxpayers, cuts red tape, and ensures that relief efforts are fast, fair, and free from political bias.

The FEMA Act was introduced by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO); Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA); former Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee lead Republican Daniel Webster (R-FL); and Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee Ranking Member Greg Stanton (D-AZ).

“The FEMA Act is designed to address one simple fact that we all recognize, especially Americans who have been impacted by disasters: FEMA is not working the way it should for our communities,” said Chairman Graves.  “This bill makes FEMA directly accountable to the President, replaces the slow and bureaucratic rebuilding process, makes critical reforms to speed up federal processes, makes disaster assistance work better for survivors, demands greater transparency from FEMA, and more.”

“As natural disasters become more frequent and severe, the FEMA Act of 2025 strengthens the Agency and ensures it has the tools to efficiently and effectively serve as a lifeline to disaster-impacted communities—like those in my district hit by the 2024 Bomb Cyclone,” said Ranking Member Larsen (D-WA). “Thank you to Chairman Graves for partnering on this important bill to reform FEMA. I hope this legislation moves quickly to the House floor for a vote.”

A detailed summary of the FEMA Act can be found here.

The FEMA Act also has the support of numerous emergency management stakeholders.

The Committee also approved legislation to reauthorize, reform, and reasonably expand the existing counter-unmanned aircraft system (counter-UAS) authorities of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). In addition, the Committee approved its views and estimates on the fiscal year 2026 budget for programs under its jurisdiction.

More information from today’s markup, including bill text and amendments approved, can be found here.