Data Foundation urges risk-based FEMA overhaul as billion-dollar disasters climb

The Data Foundation has released a policy brief with six options to make federal disaster response more efficient and effective as billion-dollar disasters nearly doubled from 2019 to 2024. The brief argues Congress should modernize FEMA with better data sharing, reduced duplication and a risk-based funding model.

Why it matters: - Billion-dollar disasters have nearly doubled since 2019, raising the stakes for how FEMA prepares for and responds to emergencies. - The brief argues that structural reform, not just more funding, is the more durable way to improve disaster assistance. - Disaster-assistance appropriations totaled at least $448 billion from fiscal 2015 through fiscal 2024, underscoring the scale of federal spending at issue. - Federal disaster policy affects taxpayers nationwide, even though benefits are concentrated in a smaller number of high-risk states.

What happened: - The Data Foundation released a new policy brief titled "Reforming the Federal Emergency Management Agency: Policy Options to Reduce Waste and Improve Response Effectiveness." - The brief presents Congress and federal agencies with six evidence-informed options to modernize FEMA. - The report was authored by Leremy Colf, a senior fellow at the Data Foundation. - The release comes as FEMA faces scrutiny from Congress, the FEMA Review Council and the U.S. Government Accountability Office. - GAO added federal disaster assistance to its High-Risk List in 2025.

The details: - The brief calls for a risk-based approach that tailors preparedness and response resources to each state's disaster profile. - The report recommends balancing disaster costs across states because costs are spread broadly while benefits are concentrated in a few high-risk states. - FEMA-related authority spans 348 statutes across 33 titles of the U.S. Code, which the brief cites as a reason to focus legislative reform on the most complex and highest-impact areas. - The brief says federally funded teams such as the National Disaster Medical System duplicate some state-run disaster medical response teams. - The report urges streamlined cross-state licensing and credentialing for healthcare professionals who may need to deploy during disasters. - The brief calls for better data sharing across more than 30 federal entities involved in disaster assistance and recovery. - The report says improved data sharing could reduce improper payments and ease the burden on disaster survivors. - The brief highlights the health-response challenge created by state-by-state licensing barriers for EMTs, paramedics and other medical professionals. - The brief points to the Emergency Management Assistance Compact as an underused mechanism that could reduce duplicative state and federal response capabilities while preserving state leadership. - The report recommends pairing a tailored risk-based approach with a jurisdictional capacity assessment, consistent with a prior GAO recommendation.

Between the lines: - The policy brief is making a budget argument and an operational argument at the same time: disaster response can be improved by moving money and authority toward places with the greatest need and the strongest local capacity gaps. - The emphasis on data sharing suggests FEMA’s problem is not only funding levels, but fragmentation across federal systems and agencies. - The focus on licensing and credentialing shows that disaster response bottlenecks can be administrative, not just logistical or financial. - Taka Ariga, senior director for the Data Foundation's Center for Data Policy, said the country already generates extensive disaster data, but that information is scattered across more than 30 federal entities that do not talk to one another. - Colf said working models such as the Nurse Licensure Compact and state EMS task forces show cross-state credentialing can be done efficiently and safely.

What's next: - The brief is aimed at Congress and federal agencies as they consider FEMA reform. - The report suggests lawmakers should prioritize targeted changes in areas with the biggest payoff, rather than a broad redesign of every FEMA authority. - Better coordination through EMAC, improved data sharing and risk-based resource allocation are presented as the most immediate levers for change. - The full policy brief is available as the full policy brief.

The bottom line: - The Data Foundation wants FEMA to shift from a one-size-fits-all model to a risk-based, data-driven system that cuts duplication and speeds disaster aid.