To direct the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to conduct a study to evaluate the effectiveness, long-term cost savings, and strategic impact of Federal Emergency Management Agency-funded hazard mitigation activities across the United States, and for other purposes.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Bresnahan (for himself and Mr. Garamendi) introduced the following …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The SMART Act (Studying Mitigation And Reporting Transparently Act) requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to conduct comprehensive studies evaluating how effective its hazard mitigation programs are at reducing disaster costs. The bill aims to determine whether FEMA's investments in disaster prevention actually save money compared to spending on disaster response and recovery.
Who Benefits and How
Communities in hazard-prone areas benefit from data that could justify continued or expanded mitigation funding, potentially leading to better flood defenses, fire-resistant construction, and other protective measures.
State and local governments gain access to research and case studies that can help them make better decisions about disaster preparedness investments and potentially access more FEMA funding.
Insurance companies benefit from FEMA publishing data on how mitigation affects risk ratings and insurance penetration, which can improve their actuarial models.
Academic researchers gain access to public datasets and methodology documentation for disaster mitigation studies.
Who Bears the Burden and How
FEMA faces significant administrative burden: conducting comprehensive annual studies, consulting with multiple agencies (GAO, NIST, states, tribes), collecting data from federal and third-party sources, and maintaining a public-facing searchable database.
Federal taxpayers bear the cost of this research program, though the bill argues this is offset by demonstrating returns on investment from mitigation spending.
Key Provisions
- Mandatory comprehensive study: FEMA must evaluate how its mitigation programs reduce disaster expenditures, improve community preparedness, affect insurance availability, and generate cost savings
- Multi-source data collection: Study must incorporate data from federal, state, local, and tribal agencies plus academic research and internal FEMA records
- Congressional reporting: Administrator must submit findings to House and Senate committees within 18 months and annually thereafter
- Public transparency: Results must be published online in searchable, user-friendly format within 2 years, including visualizations, geographic mappings, and methodology documentation
- Annual updates: Ongoing requirement to update the study annually with new data and stakeholder feedback
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
This bill directs FEMA to conduct comprehensive studies on the effectiveness and cost-benefit of its hazard mitigation programs and publish the results publicly to inform future disaster preparedness investments.
Policy Domains
SMART Act - FEMA Mitigation Study
Likely Beneficiaries
- Communities in hazard-prone areas
- State and local governments
- Insurance companies
- Academic research institutions
Likely Burden Bearers
- FEMA (administrative burden)
- Federal taxpayers (study costs)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_administrator"
- → Administrator of FEMA
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology