The Federal Emergency Management Agency
Summary
FEMA runs on $32.98 billion and 16,701 FTE in FY2026 -- two-thirds of it the Disaster Relief Fund -- and GAO's own accounting shows the agency entered the deadly July 2025 Texas floods with just 15 percent of its incident-management workforce available.
The organization
Its mission
Its charter, 6 U.S.C. § 313⧉, sets its mission as reducing "the loss of life and property" from "all hazards." Its lead role activates only when the President finds a disaster "beyond state and local capabilities"⧉.
Founded when, and why
President Carter created FEMA by Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978⧉, effective April 1, 1979, and it moved into DHS on March 1, 2003⧉. The mission language above was added by the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006⧉.
What it costs — money and people
Congress funds at $32.98 billion in FY2026 budget authority under a continuing resolution⧉, of which the Disaster Relief Fund alone accounts for $22.51 billion⧉ -- 68 percent of the total -- running on 16,701 full-time-equivalent staff⧉. Measured against the Census Bureau's 341.8 million U.S. residents⧉ as of July 2025, that works out to about $96.49 per person.
View data as table
| Disaster Relief Fund | 22.5 | 68% of total |
|---|---|---|
| National Flood Insurance Program | 5.7 | 17% of total |
| Federal Assistance (grants) | 3.2 | 10% of total |
| Operations and Support | 1.5 | 4% of total |
| Procurement, Construction, and Improvements | 0.1 | <1% of total |
What it produces
Declarations become work orders: when a major disaster is declared, becomes the lead agency coordinating the federal response⧉, issuing "mission assignments" to other federal agencies across 15 emergency-support functions. In fiscal 2025, FEMA's reported obligations exceeded $11 billion in disaster assistance within the first three months⧉ of Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the Los Angeles wildfires alone, and federal responders deployed nearly 7,000 personnel within 11 days⧉ of Helene's landfall -- the highest level of deployed staff in 's history, officials said.
Value to society, by the numbers
GAO ties federal disaster response directly to FEMA's incident-management staffing⧉: the agency entered the 2024 hurricane season with only 17 percent of that workforce available, and just 4 percent after Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit less than two weeks apart -- prompting to put "Improving the Delivery of Federal Disaster Assistance" on its High-Risk List in February 2025⧉. The pattern repeated: by July 4, 2025, the day flash flooding began in Texas that ultimately killed more than 130 people⧉, only 15 percent was available. The federal backstop runs thin precisely when it's needed most.
- 's FY2026 budget authority ($32.98 billion, 16,701 ) runs about 68 percent through the Disaster Relief Fund, not the agency's own operations; the total rose roughly 1.7 percent above FY2025 under a continuing resolution.
- estimates obligated $18.4 billion combined for Hurricanes Helene ($11.2B) and Milton ($4.4B) and the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires ($2.8B) -- even as the agency's incident-management workforce availability fell as low as 4 percent in the weeks after, and to 15 percent by the deadly July 2025 Texas floods.
Your handles.* Apply for federal disaster assistance -- or check what your household may qualify for -- at DisasterAssistance.gov or 's Individuals and Households Program page. Follow 's ongoing Disaster Assistance High-Risk Series⧉ for updates on federal disaster-workforce readiness.
Sources(5) ▾
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency Budget Overview -- Fiscal Year 2027 Congressional Justification (2026-04-03) — 's own FY2027 congressional budget justification, published April 2026 -- the most current dated summary of 's budget authority, positions, and across FY2025 (Full-Year CR), FY2026 (Annualized CR), and FY2027 (President's Budget request). Source for this entry's budget and KPIs, the program-mix chart, and the per-resident computation. Wayback snapshot confirmed at read time (2026-07-16). dhs.gov · original document
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, Disaster Assistance High-Risk Series: Federal Response Workforce Readiness (2025-09-02) — 's own report (-25-108598), the first in a new High-Risk series on federal disaster-response workforce readiness. Source for this entry's identity/statutory-basis paragraph (National Response Framework, mission assignments, the Stafford Act declaration standard), the fiscal-2025 disaster-obligation and personnel-deployment figures for Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, the incident-management workforce-availability statistics, and the February 2025 High-Risk List addition. Wayback snapshot confirmed at read time (2026-07-16). gao.gov · original document
- Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives, 6 U.S.C. § 313 -- Federal Emergency Management Agency (2026-07-16) — The current codified statute establishing within and stating its mission -- added by the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (Pub. L. 109-295, title VI, § 611(11), Oct. 4, 2006, 120 Stat. 1396), per the section's own source-credit note. Source for this entry's identity clause. uscode.house.gov · original document
- Congressional Research Service (via EveryCRSReport.com), Transfer of FEMA to the Department of Homeland Security: Issues for Congressional Oversight (2003-02-28) — Congressional Research Service report on 's original creation by Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 (effective April 1, 1979) and its 2003 transfer into the newly created Department of Homeland Security. Source for this entry's founding-date and -transfer-date facts. everycrsreport.com · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 national population estimate) (2026-01-27) — The Census Bureau's own Vintage 2025 national population estimate release, giving the U.S. resident population as of July 1, 2025 -- the per-resident denominator for this entry's cost-per-person KPI, per better_metrics.md's sourced-denominator discipline. census.gov · original document
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency is the Department of Homeland Security agency that runs the Disaster Relief Fund and coordinates the federal government's response when disasters exceed state and local capacity.