NFIP expiration looms as shutdown, disaster seasons collide

"One really unfortunate aspect of our government is that government shutdown negotiations and debt ceiling negotiations that periodically cause the shutdown threats almost always correspond with the end of the fiscal year. And that September 30 deadline that has plagued congressional and White House negotiators for over a decade now also correlates with the moment when disaster season is becoming even more costly."

"So we've had numerous instances in recent years where the uncertainty for the National Flood Insurance Program and the famous Disaster Relief Fund, which usually needs to be replenished as part of the appropriations process, has come to a head at the same moment when both hurricane season and wildfire season are coming to a peak, and it affected Massachusetts in the fall of 2023 when FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund was underfunded and areas that experienced extreme flooding that fall wasn't able to access federal relief quickly, and the Maui wildfires also happened in the midst of government shutdown negotiations, which delayed federal aid after that disaster."

"And so states are even, before Trump began dismantling FEMA and NOAA, states were really struggling with this dynamic of our broken disaster relief system, and were beginning to realize that they needed to take steps on their own to bolster their climate resilience, because the federal government has not been fully equipped to respond appropriately to climate disasters for years now, and it's now being made worse by the Trump administration abandoning its commitment to disaster relief across a score of agencies and programs."

Government shutdown negotiations and debt ceiling talks regularly coincide with the fiscal year end, creating funding uncertainty that aligns with peak disaster season. The September 30 appropriations deadline often forces delays in replenishing the National Flood Insurance Program and the Disaster Relief Fund just as hurricanes and wildfires intensify. Recent examples include Massachusetts in fall 2023, where FEMA's underfunded Disaster Relief Fund slowed aid to extreme flood victims, and the Maui wildfires, where aid was delayed during shutdown negotiations. States had already begun strengthening their own climate resilience as federal capacity faltered, and recent federal dismantling of FEMA and NOAA has worsened response gaps.

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