Disaster Assistance Simplification Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
Adds a new Stafford Act section requiring the FEMA Administrator to develop, within 360 days, a unified intake process and system for disaster assistance. The system must support consolidated applications, status updates, applicant updates across recovery, information on additional resources, applicant documentation, application-data distribution to speed federal assistance, direct agency communication with survivors, and waste, fraud, abuse, and discrimination controls. FEMA must consult federal, State, local, and Indian tribal governments and certify participating disaster assistance agencies.
Who Benefits and How
Disaster survivors, households, small businesses, nonprofits, State governments, local governments, Indian tribal governments, Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery recipients, SBA disaster-loan applicants, SNAP disaster-food beneficiaries, and long-term recovery program applicants benefit from fewer duplicate applications and faster sharing of assistance information. Taxpayers benefit if the system reduces improper payments and duplicate benefits.
Who Bears the Burden and How
FEMA, certified disaster assistance agencies, state emergency management offices, local recovery offices, tribal governments, agency privacy officers, IT contractors, and block-grant administrators must integrate systems, standardize records, share data lawfully, update applicants, and protect personal, demographic, financial, and application-decision information. Agencies also must maintain fraud, abuse, discrimination, and privacy safeguards.
Key Provisions
- Defines disaster assistance agencies, programs, applicants, information, and records for unified intake.
- Requires FEMA to establish a unified disaster assistance intake process and system within 360 days.
- Requires consolidated applications, status updates, applicant information updates, resource referrals, and direct agency communication.
- Allows application data distribution to speed federal disaster assistance and block-grant recovery.
- Requires the system to support detection, prevention, and investigation of waste, fraud, abuse, and discrimination.
- Requires consultation with federal, State, local, and Indian tribal governments.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Directs FEMA to establish a unified disaster assistance intake process and system so disaster survivors, businesses, organizations, and state, local, and tribal beneficiaries can apply for and track federal disaster assistance through a consolidated process with privacy and fraud controls.
Key Policy Areas
Emergency Management, Government Operations, Disaster Recovery
Primary Purpose
Directs FEMA to establish a unified disaster assistance intake process and system so disaster survivors, businesses, organizations, and state, local, and tribal beneficiaries can apply for and track federal disaster assistance through a consolidated process with privacy and fraud controls.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Disaster survivors
- Small businesses applying for disaster assistance
- Nonprofit disaster assistance applicants
- State governments
- Local governments
- Indian tribal governments
- CDBG-DR grant recipients
- SBA disaster-loan applicants
Identified Costs
- Federal Emergency Management Agency
- Certified disaster assistance agencies
- State emergency management offices
- Local recovery offices
- Tribal governments
- Agency privacy officers
- IT contractors
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
Passed SenateHeld at the desk.
Received in the House.
Message on Senate action sent to the House.
Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S8763-8764; …
Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous …
Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. …
Reported by Mr. Paul, without amendment
Passed Senate (inferred from es version)
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Reported by Senator …
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Certified disaster assistance agencies, Federal Emergency Management Agency
Local recovery offices, State emergency management offices
Small businesses applying for disaster assistance
IT contractors integrating disaster assistance systems
Tribal governments administering disaster assistance
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "fema"
- → Federal Emergency Management Agency
- "administrator"
- → FEMA Administrator
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A FEMA-led consolidated process and system for applications, data sharing, status updates, and communication across federal disaster assistance programs.
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