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Appropriations on Hold Until After Election Day
The House and Senate have each passed resolutions putting off final funding decisions until early December. The differences between each chamber’s measure will be ironed out when Congress returns from its August recess after Labor Day. Since the federal fiscal year starts on October 1st, both measures essentially provide that the government will remain funded at current (Fiscal Year 2026) levels until the dust from the November elections settles. There are significant differences between the House and Senate resolutions that will have to be ironed out by September 30th. We will have an update in our September WaterLog issue.
FEMA Disaster Readiness and Reform
A July 15th hearing from the House Transportation & Infrastructure committee renewed the push for a floor vote on the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act (H.R. 4669). The committee has been aiming to reform FEMA’s pre-disaster mitigation, immediate disaster response, and short- and long-term recovery for almost a year since the introduction of the H.R. 4669, with committee approval last September and bipartisan support at its July 15th hearing.
As detailed in past Waterlogs, FEMA has been under scrutiny due to a host of administrative cutbacks and challenges. This act aligns with many priorities of the president’s FEMA Review Council, assessing FEMA and providing recommendations for reform, including a consensus on a “state led, locally executed and federally supported” system. However, H.R. 4669 would remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security, re-establishing it as an independent agency to report directly to the president—a move that counters the Council’s report. Committee Chairman Sam Graves stated, “What everyone seems to agree on is that FEMA is broken, and it's been that way for a long time…the federal emergency management system needs fundamental change to reduce lives lost, speed up recovery, and lower cost to the taxpayer.”
The bill would also replace certain reimbursement programs with upfront grants, reform permit requirements, and create a universal disaster assistance application to streamline application processes and expedite project funding while reducing costs. It also gives power to states to manage more complex projects. Ranking Member Rick Larsen says these reforms “have to be in place before the next disaster hits. Congress has already waited a year too long….” This is another issue we’ll continue to cover in WaterLog.
Update on NC hardened structures 'ban'
As North Carolina continues to rethink its ban on hardened structures for shoreline protection, its Coastal Resources Commission (CRC) recently released its draft report, Report on the Effects of Hard Structures on Sandy, Open-Ocean Coastlines. The CRC found that “expanding the use of hard structures in North Carolina would be a move counter to a trend among jurisdictions that have long-term experience with hardened structures and are now placing stronger limits on their use.” However, the report recommends that legislators take a cautious approach to using hardened structures along the open-ocean coastline and require a comprehensive evaluation and long-term monitoring and mitigation plan should any policy change be made.
Two bills, Senate Bills 1008 and 1009, are proposed in the state legislature, calling to repeal the ban on hardened structures and to update the state’s Beach and Inlet Management Plan (S1009) and create a pilot program for shoreline stabilization projects (S1008). However, a third factor was recently amended, excluding language that would allow for the use of the state’s Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Funds to be used for these projects. Both bills are still held in NC Senate Committees and have not yet advanced to the floor.
To see this debate in action, look to Buxton, NC where locals feel strongly that the damaged jetty was to blame for the rapid erosion of the shoreline that led to several houses falling into the ocean in recent years. Locals seek to repair the 640-foot jetty to help hold new sand in place from a beach nourishment project funded by Dare County.
FEMA Workforce Cuts Didn’t Consider Disaster Impact, Says Watchdog
Th Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, concluded that the Federal Emergency Management Agency didn’t consider how disaster response would be impacted when it cut its workforce over the past year. Noting that FEMA’s core mission is to “help people before, during, and after disasters,” GAO found that FEMA lost 4,300 employees in Fiscal Year 2025, resulting in “a loss of institutional knowledge and experienced personnel” which “exacerbated longstanding workforce challenges” facing the agency. In addition, FEMA rescinded its own strategic plan in 2025 and, as a result, has no basis on which to base workforce planning. GAO found that without such a plan, “FEMA cannot effectively determine its future workforce needs, putting it mission at risk” and also making it impossible to forecast future workforce needs. In conclusion, the watchdog agency found that “FEMA is not positioned to determine whether it has the right number of people with the right skills in the right positions at the right time to meet its mission.”
WRDA24 Study Targets Corps Disaster Funding
In the Water Resources Development Act of 2024, Congress directed the General Accountability Office, its investigative arm, to analyze Corps of Engineers disaster preparedness and response activities. Late last month, GAO issued its findings that include these conclusions –
- The Corps usually does not request disaster response funds from Congress. Rather, it requests only money for training and equipment and waits for a relies for response funding for a supplemental appropriations request to come from either the administration or Congress after a disaster occurs.
- The Corps can make transfers from appropriated funds on hand to its Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies (FCCE) account while it awaits supplemental appropriations for its P.L. 84-99 disaster response program.
- From FY2004 through FY2025, the Corps received $60.6 billion in supplemental appropriations. [Note: We calculated the Corps received $137.22 billion in regular congressional appropriations over that period.]
- The Corps has spent more than $34 billion on disasters from the $60.6 billion in post-disaster supplemental appropriations it has received.
What the report does not cover is the reality that supplemental appropriations for coastal projects far exceed the regular appropriations for coastal storm risk management (beach nourishment) projects. In other words, the renourishment of federal beach projects is being done through disaster appropriations far more than the regular congressional appropriations process. The more Congress underfunds regular beach nourishment projects, the more local project sponsors rely on post-disaster supplemental appropriations at 100 percent federal cost to pay for the regular cost-shared renourishment of those projects.
Coastal Legislative Update
We’re tracking 264 individual bills introduced in this Congress, 8 of which have become public law. Three of this group do not appropriate funds for any part of the government. They deserve highlighting because, like salmon swimming upstream, have made it through the arduous law-making process of our country so well encapsulated by the animated cartoon called Schoolhouse Rock. This exclusive list includes the Disaster Related Extension of Deadlines Act (Rep. Murphy, P.L. 119-64); Save Our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act (Sen. Sullivan, P.L. 119-65); and the Filing Relief for Natural Disasters Act, Rep. Kustoff, P.L. 119-29).
Among the bills waiting for debate on the floor of either of the two chambers of Congress are these measures: House and Senate versions of the Water Resources Development Act (H.R. 9497 and S. 4949); Integrated Ocean Observation System Reauthorization (S. 2126; Wicker); and the Rural Small Business Resilience Act (S.1703, Klobuchar).
The Federal Disaster Tax Relief Certainty Act (Rep. Steube, R-FL, H.R. 5366), has passed both the House and Senate and will be headed to the President’s desk for signature into law. The bill extends the length of time that victims of natural disasters have to claim personal losses on their tax returns. Information about any of these measures can be found on the Congress.gov website. The full list of bills affecting coastal communities can be found here.
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Howard Marlowe | President
Warwick Group Consultants, LLC
Howard.Marlowe@WarwickConsultants.Net
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Washington, DC 20006
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