New Congressional Research Service Report ( 73 pp) on FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program (IHP)—Implementation and Considerations for Congress

Priority Open Recommendations: Department of Homeland Security.  
Full report is 34 pp.

“Each year, we make more than 1,000 recommendations to help the federal government save money, address issues on our High Risk List, and significantly improve government operations.

This letter to DHS outlines 42 open recommendations that it should prioritize. The recommendations relate to emergency preparedness, border and transportation security, infrastructure, cybersecurity and IT, chemical security, countering violent extremism, and domestic intelligence and information sharing.

DHS implemented 14 recommendations we identified as a priority last year.”

From HSNW: Extreme Heat Will Cost the U.S. $1 Billion in Health Care Costs — This Summer Alone

New CRS Report on Building Resilience: FEMA’s Building Codes
Policies and Considerations for Congress. (40 pp).

From the WashPost: Pressure builds for FEMA to declare deadly heat events as disasters. Proponents say a federal disaster designation could save lives by providing vital services and reimbursing states for being proactive

Interesting take on how media cover disasters: From Politico: The Cold-Blooded Reality of Disaster Coverage.

From CNN: Thousands of Americans are leaving homes in flood-risk areas. But where are they moving to?

“For more than four decades, the US government has been paying cities and states to move homeowners away from areas that are at high risk of severe flooding.

When a hurricane or major flooding event devastates an area, a neighborhood can send a request for the local or state government to buy the impacted land and give residents money to start over someplace else.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s buyout program is a form of so-called “managed retreat” – a long process that relocates people, businesses, homes and infrastructure to an area that’s safer from the impacts of climate change-fueled weather events. But until recently, little was known about where people ultimately moved and whether their new location actually reduced their flood risk.”

From HSNW: Why Insurance Companies Are Pulling Out of California and Florida, and How to Fix Some of the Underlying Problems. Author is Prof. Melanie Gall of ASU.

Recently developed Code of Ethics and Professional Standards of Conduct for Emergency Managers, developed by a team of academics and practioners in 2023. (The document is 20 pages.)

New report from the Congressional Research Service: Congressional Primer on Responding to and Recovering from Major Disasters and Emergencies (28 pp).