This year’s Hurricane Season opened this week with a bang as Hurricane Beryl’s category 5 winds carved a path of destruction among the islands of the Caribbean Sea. Almost as if on cue, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) just released proposed revisions to regulations for the Public Assistance (“PA”) program, a key resource for states, tribal and local governments as they recover from hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, fires and other natural disasters with funds authorized under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (“Stafford Act”).

Current PA regulations are codified at 44 C.F.R. Part 206. These long-awaited revisions to PA Program regulations incorporate changes to the Stafford Act through various relatively-long standing laws Congress enacted to strengthen FEMA programs in response to Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Irma and Maria (2005, 2012, and 2017 respectively).

Notable revisions FEMA proposed for Public Assistance program regulations include:

1. placing Indian Tribal governments on par with States and Territories so that they may act as recipients or subrecipients of PA program funds;
2. adding houses of worship, center-based child-care facilities, performing arts facilities, community arts facilities, and food banks as eligible Private Nonprofit
   (PNP) facilities;
3. expanding categories of eligible assistance to include rescue, care, shelter and essential needs of household pets, service animals, and assistance animals;
4. addressing eligibility to cover costs of temporary relocation facilities for essential community services;
5. adding “disability” and “English proficiency” to the list of protected classes to strengthen nondiscrimination rules in activities funded with PA funds;
6. stylistic edits to better align PA regulations with the Uniform Guidance, 2 C.F.R. Part 200 and to clarify that Part 200 applies to the extent it does not conflict with Stafford Act provisions or FEMA’s implementation of those provisions;
7. provisions relating to eligible costs for straight and overtime labor, force account labor, as well as budgeted and unbudgeted employees performing emergency protective measures;
8. clarification on eligibility of debris removal costs; and
9. clarification on calculation and funding of administrative and management costs for major disasters and emergencies.

FEMA published the notice of proposed rulemaking (“NPRM”) to revise Public Assistance program regulations on July 2, 2024, available at 89 Federal Register 54966-55015. The public may submit comments on the NPRM no later than September 3, 2024 (Docket ID FEMA-2023-0005), via the Federal eRulemaking Portal: www.regulations.gov.

At Feldesman, we will monitor FEMA’s approval of final regulations and response to comments, expected in late Fall 2024.

For questions concerning this Client Alert, please contact Phillip A. Escoriaza, Senior Counsel, at 202.466.8960 or pescoriaza@feldesman.com.