With hurricane season still going strong, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says its disaster fund has run out of money. Traditionally, hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, but as of August 7, 2024, FEMA will only provide money for immediate needs.
Here’s what you need to know—including how it happened.
Funding Criteria
FEMA is a federal agency tasking helping people before, during and after disasters. By law, FEMA must provide a report on the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) by the fifth day of each month—that gets published on the agency’s website. The report includes, among other things, an overall funding summary, a summary of funding for the catastrophic events, and an estimate of the date on which the funds will be exhausted. FEMA uses DRF money to direct, coordinate, manage, and fund eligible response and recovery efforts associated with major disasters and emergencies that overwhelm state resources.
(You can see the most recent report here.)
Through the DRF, FEMA can fund authorized federal disaster support activities and eligible state, territorial, tribal, and local actions such as providing emergency protection and debris removal. The DRF also funds the repair and restoration of qualifying disaster-damaged public infrastructure, hazard mitigation initiatives, financial assistance to eligible disaster survivors, and Fire Management Assistance Grants for large forest or grassland wildfires.
When the DRF is insufficient, FEMA will prioritize lifesaving and life-sustaining activities using Immediate Needs Funding (INF). During INF, FEMA will pause all new obligations related to public assistance, such as reimbursem*nt for disaster activity that has already been completed and permanent work, as well as hazard mitigation, that are not essential for lifesaving and life-sustaining activities.
As part of the 2024 appropriations bill, Congress provided $20.261 billion for the DRF. Since the beginning of fiscal year 2024, FEMA projected that DRF balances would not be enough to meet requirements and asked for more money. However, Congress didn’t act on their $9 billion request while in session. Congress is now on recess through the end of the month (the Senate is tentatively expected to return to Washington, D.C., on September 9). It’s not clear when—or if—Congress will take up the request for additional funding.
Meanwhile, the DRF will continue to head south, according to the most recent projections. The “Majors” balance as shown below refers to funds available for major disasters.
Historical Funding
This marks the second year in a row that FEMA has run out of money. Last year, an INF was implemented following Hurricane Idalia on August 29, 2023, and lifted on October 2, 2023, after the 2024 short-term continuing resolution.
Since 2001, FEMA has implemented INF eight other times: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2017.
Congress provided over $139 billion in supplemental disaster funding in response to disasters that occurred between 2017 and 2019. That includes money to help communities recover from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, the 2017 California Wildfires, and other disasters.
Large scale disasters can result in money being depleted very quickly. During the first 30 days of response to Hurricane Ian—a category 1 storm that stalled off the coast of North Carolina in 2022—FEMA obligated approximately $2.6 billion (that worked out to nearly $86 million a day). Similarly, in 2022 FEMA obligated $987 million during the first 30 days responding to Hurricane Fiona, a storm that killed at least 29 people.
Fires and hurricanes haven’t been the only concerns that the agency has had to tackle in recent years. After former President Trump implemented a national emergency declaration on March 13, 2020 due to the pandemic, FEMA provided more than $61 billion in public assistance funding. That included money for emergency medical care, personal protective equipment, testing, vaccinations, and emergency sheltering and feeding related to the Covid virus.
Moving Ahead
Despite the lack of funding for the remaining fiscal year, FEMA officials say they have enough resources to respond to tropical storm Ernesto. Federal disasters were recently declared in five states (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Vermont) following Hurricane Debby—as a result, the IRS has issued taxpayer relief in those states. More are likely to come.
Earlier this year, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicted a very high likelihood (85% chance) of an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season, with 17-25 named storms—the average is 14. NOAA predicted 8-13 hurricanes (the average is 7), declaring that 4-7 will be considered major hurricanes (average is 3). This month, NOAA upped the likelihood of an above-normal season to 90%.
A FEMA spokesperson told Forbes, “FEMA’s priority is ensuring the agency has the resources available to support ongoing lifesaving and life sustaining activities.” Referencing the INF, the spokesperson continued, “This ensures that FEMA can maintain essential operations, prioritize funding for ongoing disasters’ needs and allows the agency to respond immediately to new disasters. Implementing Immediate Needs Funding does not cancel work for existing projects, but does pause funding until the Disaster Relief Fund is replenished.”
FEMA employs more than 20,000 people nationwide. FEMA was officially created in 1979 through an executive order by President Jimmy Carter, though the agency’s history can be traced as far back as 1803. On March 1, 2003, FEMA became part of the Department of Homeland Security. Today, FEMA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has ten regional offices across the country.
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