Stafford Act Amendments

Subtitle E of the "post-Katrina Act" contains amendments to the Stafford Act. (The image, by the way, is Robert T. Stafford Hall at the University of Vermont.) Here are some of the important changes:

• Without awaiting a request from the governor, the president can "provide accelerated Federal assistance and Federal support where necessary to save lives, prevent human suffering, or mitigate severe damage."
• FEMA is supposed to devise a "National Disaster Recovery Strategy" (sec. 682) and a National Disaster Housing Strategy (sec. 683).
  
• Discrimination in providing disaster relief on the basis of age or English proficiency is forbidden.
• A couple of pilot programs are established dealing with temporary housing and public assistance.
• New provisions are made for reunifying families.

To round out the statute, subtitle G deals with fraud issues and subtitle H authorizes 10% increases in funding for FEMA in each of the years 2008, 2009, and 2010.

Overall, the statute seems to me to call for a lot of strategies and new organizational entities. The big question is whether these things will come to pass in a meaningful way.