Due by May 15, 2025 

Request for Public Input on Experiences With FEMA Disaster Responses

You can submit your public comments on FEMA’s Request for Information (RFI) by May 15, 2025 about Experiences with FEMA Disaster Responses

You can submit as an individual, as part of an organization, or even anonymously.

Your voice matters! Tell FEMA and the FEMA Review Council how they need to strengthen disability integration, protect disabled lives in disasters, and ensure that no one is left behind before, during, or after disasters and emergencies.

Use the following talking points to help shape your comments. Feel free to personalize them, share your experiences, and highlight what’s most urgently needed to improve FEMA.

Note: Responses may not exceed five (5) pages per respondent and should focus on addressing the requested information described in the RFI.

 

 Key Talking Points for Commenters

• Affirm FEMA’s indispensable role. Emphasize that FEMA coordinates large-scale resources states cannot replicate, and that eliminating or hollowing out the agency would put lives at risk, especially disabled disaster survivors. 
  • FEMA is an essential resource to people with disabilities and their families’ before, during, and after disasters. FEMA supports disabled individuals by replacing lost damage and destroyed equipment including wheelchairs, providing grants to replace housing, and covering costs for home modifications needed for accessibility.
• Preserve and strengthen Individual Assistance reforms. FEMA’s 2024 updates to the Individual Assistance program significantly improved access to aid for disaster survivors by streamlining the application process, reducing administrative burdens, and making accessibility improvements.
• Expand and fully staff the Regional Disability Integration Specialist (RDIS) program. At least one RDIS per state/territory, or a formula based on population and geography, is essential; current staffing across the regions is inadequate.
• Modernize FEMA’s Learning Management System (LMS). Update course content and delivery methods to reach rural and frontier areas; integrate accessibility and disability-specific curricula. Contract with disability-led organizations with subject matter expertise to develop, pilot, and facilitate training.
• Clarify and minimize cost-share barriers. States often hesitate to request assistance because of match uncertainty; clearer guidance and flexible waivers increase people’s confidence in the program.
  • States will not be able to absorb a 25 percent reimbursement rate. It must remain at least 75 percent. Otherwise, disabled people will languish in beds without services, acquiring pressure sores and other medical problems, if they are lucky and on streets and in institutions if they are not.
  • FEMA funds should not be block-granted to states. Block-granting is always a cut.
• Re-establish a cross-agency Housing Task Force. Focus on unhoused survivors and offer a range of temporary housing options beyond sheltering that are accessible, community-based, and responsive to individual needs. Ensure coordination of essential supports including food/water delivery, durable medical equipment, and attendant services across all housing settings.
• Improve and strengthen inter-agency response coordination. Ensure other federal agencies are working collaboratively, communicate effectively, and coordinate efforts that ensure survivors are best served.
• Ensure strict compliance with Section 504. Tie every federal dollar to demonstrable non-discrimination and accessibility; enforce grantee accountability.
• Remove barriers to individual assistance. Guarantee that registration, inspections, and appeals are accessible (plain language, ASL, Braille, large-print, easy-read).
• Partner with disability-led organizations (DLOs). Formalize collaboration with national DLO’s involved in emergency management as well as with state/territory-based organizations like Centers for Independent Living (CILs), Statewide Independent Living Council (SILCs), Developmental Disabilities Councils, Protection and Advocacy Agencies (P&A’s), and other DLOs across mitigation, planning, response, and recovery.
• Build disability competency across the field. Provide comprehensive, mandatory training on disability rights, effective communication, and accessibility standards for FEMA staff and contractors.
• Collect and publish disaggregated disability data. Transparent data drives accountability and informs continuous improvement.
• Highlight personal or organizational experiences to illustrate consequences. Frame each recommendation with concrete examples of how FEMA helped, or how gaps hurt, disabled survivors.

All comments should include the following point:

The nation’s disaster response and recovery system needs major, comprehensive reform. However, dismantling FEMA or limiting its ability to respond will not solve these problems. Our feedback should not be seen as support for weakening or eliminating FEMA. FEMA plays a critical role in providing aid and funding to states and communities before, during, and after disasters. Eliminating FEMA will not improve safety or expand access to disaster resources—instead, it would needlessly endanger the lives of survivors who rely most on assistance. We welcome the chance to offer constructive input to help FEMA achieve better outcomes for families affected by disasters.