“Who Says It’s a Disaster?”: Podcast Companion

This Insight accompanies the CRS podcast episode "Who Says It's a Disaster?" and includes background information on the issues discussed on the podcast.

Four Families of Disaster Declarations

• 1. Stafford Act
• 2. Small Business Administration
• 3. U.S. Department of Agriculture
• 4. Department of Commerce

Note: Overlapping declarations for a single incident are common.

Stafford Act

• 42 U.S.C. §§5121 et seq.
• Presidential authorities delegated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• 44 C.F.R. Part 206

FY2023 Funding

Stafford Act relief is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF).

Annual Appropriations: $19,945,000,000 (unused prior-year budget authority does not expire)

Supplemental Appropriations: $21,200,000,000

Obligations:

• FMAGs: $133,000,000
• Emergencies: $94,000,000
• Major Disasters: $37,673,000,000

Small Business Administration (SBA)

Eligibility for disaster loans can be triggered by a Stafford Act major disaster declaration or by the SBA Administrator under the Small Business Act.

Under Stafford:

• Entities in declared counties for which PA and IA have been authorized and adjacent contiguous counties are eligible for SBA home and business disaster loans.
• In counties with declarations that only allow PA, only eligible nonprofits may receive SBA disaster loans.

Under the Small Business Act:

• At the request of the governor or tribal executive, the SBA Administrator can issue a declaration to make disaster loans available.
• Minimum threshold is in regulations: at least 25 homes and businesses sustain uninsured losses of 40% or more in any county or other smaller political subdivision.

FY2023 Funding

Annual Appropriations: $179,000,000 (largely administrative costs; like the DRF, its budget authority does not expire)

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Under Stafford:

• Entities in counties with major disaster declarations and adjacent counties are eligible for USDA emergency farm loans to cover production and physical losses.

Under Secretarial Authority:

• The Secretary of Agriculture can designate disasters without a request to address livestock, crop, and infrastructure losses.
• A request for a disaster designation must be made within three months of the event, and the local Farm Service Agency (FSA) collects the required loss information.

Drought designations:

Expedited secretarial designations are based on drought conditions; no request is required.

Information comes from the U.S. Drought Monitor—a collaboration between USDA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that produces a weekly report on the duration and severity of drought conditions nationwide.

To qualify, during a county's grazing period, a county must experience either:

• 8 weeks of continuous severe drought (D2), or
• extreme drought (D3) or exceptional drought (D4) for any length of time.

Note: Most USDA assistance for agricultural losses is triggered directly by losses or qualifying events—not a disaster declaration.

FY2023 Funding

USDA disaster relief is funded through a mix of discretionary appropriations (mostly supplemental) and mandatory funding.

Supplemental Appropriations: $3,741,715,000.

• Mandatory Funding: Fiscal year-end information on permanent disaster assistance programs is not yet available.

U.S. Department of Commerce / National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Key Terms

Fishery Resource Disaster (biological term): a sudden, unexpected, large decrease in fish stock biomass, or other change that results in significant loss of access to that fishery resource.

Commercial Fishery Failure (economic term): occurs when revenues from commerce in the fishery decrease due to a fishery resource disaster, such that the decrease causes fishers to suffer economic hardship.

Authorities, Processes, and Assistance

NOAA provides fisheries disaster assistance under authorities through the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA; P.L. 109-479, as amended).

The MSA was recently amended by the Fishery Resource Disasters Improvement Act, 2022 (P.L. 117-328), which reformed and codified several NOAA policies.

The Secretary of Commerce determines whether a fisheries disaster has occurred, on the basis of a request from a governor, tribal executive, or similar official, or on their own initiative. The determination is made based on 12-month revenue loss thresholds specified in the MSA for a fishery resource disaster.

• Losses greater than 80% over a 12-month timeframe may result in a positive determination.
• Losses between 35% and 80% are evaluated to determine whether economic impacts were severe enough, while losses less than 35% are not eligible for that determination.
• Determinations are not automatic. Overfishing and other factors can result in no determination being made.

FY2023 Funding

Annual Appropriations: $300,000 (administrative costs).

Supplemental Appropriations: $300,000,000 (disaster assistance).

For More Information:

• CRS Report R41981, Congressional Primer on Responding to and Recovering from Major Disasters and Emergencies
• CRS Report R47631, Federal Disaster Assistance for Businesses: Summaries and Policy Options
• CRS In Focus IF10565, Federal Disaster Assistance for Agriculture

Music: Inspirational City, by Denys Kyshchuk, as carried on freemusicarchive.org, under the terms of its Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.