The Department of Transportation (DOT) is in the process of allocating, obligating, and disbursing the $13 billion appropriated by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013 (DRAA) for surface transportation relief. Most of the DRAA surface transportation funds--over $10 billion--were appropriated to the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) new Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program.

According to stakeholders with whom GAO spoke, several conditions must be present to increase private sector involvement in the sale of flood insurance. First, insurers need to be able to accurately assess risk to determine premium rates. For example, stakeholders told GAO that access to National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policy and claims data and upcoming improvements in private sector com

In summary, GAO found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported taking various actions to address each of the five provisions of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (Post-Katrina Act) that GAO reviewed. (1)6 U.S.C. 319 (b)(2)(C): In response to this provision--which requires FEMA to revise the Catastrophic Incident Annex (the Annex) to the National Response

GAO's review of the reimbursements the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) made to the American Red Cross (Red Cross) related to the 77 presidentially declared major disasters in 2008 found (1) FEMA established criteria for the reimbursements that was consistent with the law, (2) no evidence that funding from other federal sources had been made available for the costs that FEMA reimbursed,

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) have 10 disaster assistance programs that small agricultural producers and businesses that support agriculture can use to recover from natural disasters. These programs serve largely different populations but leave few gaps in the disaster assistance available to most small agricultur

During fiscal years 2004-2011, the President received governors' requests for 629 disaster declarations and approved 539, or 86 percent, of which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported 71 percent were for severe storms. For these 539 declarations, FEMA obligated $80.3 billion, or an average of about $10 billion a year, from the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), as of January 31, 2012.

From fiscal years 2007 through 2010, the Emergency Relief Program received about $2.3 billion, of which $1.9 billion came from three supplemental appropriations compared with about $400 million authorized from the Highway Trust Fund. FHWA allocated this funding to 42 states and 3 territories to reduce the backlog of funding requests, with $485 million in unfunded requests remaining as of June 201

SBA has continued to make progress in addressing provisions of the Act, although continued attention to certain provisions will be important for sustained progress. As of November 2011, SBA met requirements for 16 of 26 provisions of the Act and partially addressed 6. Four provisions do not require any action at this time. For example, SBA updated its Disaster Recovery Plan annually, most recentl

Small businesses located in four Gulf Coast states (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas) received about $2.7 billion (13.3 percent) of the $20.5 billion federal agencies directly awarded nationwide in contracts for hurricane recovery between fiscal years 2005 and 2011. Small businesses in the rest of the United States received about $2.6 billion (12.9 percent). The Corps and the rest of DOD--t