Trump's FEMA Panel Would Gut Federal Disaster Aid for Millions of Americans, New SOS Analysis Finds

New Report Exposes How the FEMA Review Council's Overhaul Would Shut Out Communities, Strip Survivors, and Deepen Inequality

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As hurricane season intensifies, Sabotaging Our Safety  today released a new analysis of key recommendations from the Trump administration's FEMA Review Council final report, documenting how its proposed overhaul would restrict access to federal disaster aid, replace proven grant programs with untested formulas, and shift billions in costs onto the states, counties, and survivors least equipped to absorb them.

First featured in CBS News, the report finds the Council’s plan "would limit access to federal disaster aid for survivors, shifting the burden to state and local governments amid hurricane season."

“This report is a fantasy. Trump's appointed panel is telling states to absorb costs they cannot bear, telling survivors to make do with less, and calling it reform. Slashing FEMA's capacity and offloading disaster recovery onto states doesn't save money, it shifts unmanageable costs to Louisiana, Texas, and every other state that depends on a federal partner when catastrophe hits,” said Sabotaging Our Safety Advisory Council member Rafael Lemaitre. 

KEY FINDINGS

Fewer disaster declarations. More costs on communities. 

• 29% of disaster declarations from 2012 to 2025 would have been excluded under the report’s recommended threshold increase.

• The report recommends shifting a cumulative $1.5 billion cost burden entirely onto states, counties, and survivors.

• There would be roughly 16 fewer major disaster declarations per year under the new threshold, meaning moderate-but-severe disasters would be absorbed entirely by states and counties without any federal assistance.

• The report recommends increasing the per capita indicator 54% before a federal declaration can even be requested.

Fifteen categories of survivor assistance collapsed into one and renters locked out. 

• 15 categories of Individual Assistance would be collapsed into a single capped payment available only when a home is rendered uninhabitable.

• Homeowner payments would be capped at $150,000.

• Renters would receive, at most, six months at the Fair Market Rate — a standard that frequently falls below actual post-disaster rental costs.

• Homeowners already received 2.5 times more Individual Assistance than renters between 2006 and 2018. The FEMA Review Council’s proposed system would deepen the gap between Individual Assistance to homeowners and renters by tying all renter eligibility to a property-level determinations renters have no say over.

• Black survivors in counties hit by major disasters already face a wealth impact gap of more than $150,000 compared to white survivors in the same counties. The FEMA Review Council’s proposed system would worsen the gap, which is directly tied to unequal access to federal disaster assistance.

Flood insurance is getting less affordable while the safety net disappears. 

• Shifting to Risk Rating 2.0 will cause an estimated 11–39% decline in new NFIP flood insurance policies, with even larger drops in areas with the steepest premium increases.

• The lowest-income ZIP codes could see a 25–60% decline in new flood insurance policies under Risk Rating 2.0, compared to a 7–32% in the highest-income quartile.

• Premiums are projected to increase by 279% in the most flood-ZIP codes under full the Council’s risk-based pricing scheme — more than $2,000 per year.

• The NFIP is currently $20 billion in debt, and extracting the program's most profitable policyholders would only worsen its balance sheet.

• 400,000+ homes in the Southeast and central Southwest are already underinsured for inland flooding.

Disaster recovery grants process replaced with an untested formula.

• The current program has delivered approximately $180 billion in Public Assistance grants to states and local governments, which RAPID would replace entirely.

• The report recommends a sliding-scale federal cost share of 50 to 75 percent tied to state preparedness benchmarks — down from the current 75 percent federal baseline — leaving communities that do manage to meet the higher threshold with less federal assistance.

• All RAPID funds must be expended or returned within eight years, which does not account for the multi-decade rebuilding timelines of major disasters.