New Biden administration rules aim to unsnarl FEMA relief for disaster victims

After a natural disaster, getting individual aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, can be a notoriously slow and cumbersome process. But the Biden administration said it is looking to improve it.

New agency rules will offer up-front housing vouchers and broader access to flexible, critical-needs payments in the aftermath of a disaster. Aid applications for business owners will be shorter too, among other changes.

The largest wildfire in New Mexico’s history was set by the federal government; it started as a prescribed burn in 2022 before it got out of control. Two years later, hundreds of victims are still waiting on FEMA payouts.

“It’s been, um, exhausting,” said Janna Lopez, who runs a community group that’s been helping people apply for federal aid. “Right when they think they have their application turned in, more documents are requested, more affidavits.”

FEMA’s new regulations are meant to cut through this kind of red tape, especially for low-income victims and those without disaster insurance.

“I think it’s all trending in the right direction,” said Michael Wara, a climate policy expert at Stanford.

But FEMA has more work to do, he argued. “The reality is that it is much more cost-effective to help people prepare for disaster than to help recover.”

Wara added that it would cost less for the agency to offer more grants and loans to help make homes more resilient to wildfires and floods.