ACTION ALERT: Urge Your Representative to Pass the Bipartisan FEMA Act (H.R. 4669)
Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act of 2025 (H.R. 4669) would overhaul emergency programs by streamlining disaster assistance, focusing on disaster mitigation, and provide needed improvements in agency independence, accountability, and transparency.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) mission is to help people before, during, and after disasters by providing financial, logistical, and material support. The agency has been instrumental in supporting communities after disasters since its creation in 1979.
Emergency management experts and community stakeholders agree that the agency is in critical need of modernization. As a result of an undeniable increase of natural hazards and climate related disasters, FEMA’s work supporting communities to prepare for and recover from natural disasters is more important than ever.
As United Methodists, we recognize that the impact of climate change is worsening with more frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that lead to natural disasters across the world. Requiring more multilateral help, The United Methodist Social Principles call to work for the dignity and well-being of all people in the world affected by hardship disasters.
“A sharp upsurge in greenhouse gases over past decades already has resulted in a steady rise in sea levels, growing acidification of the world’s oceans, increased droughts and famines, and the intensification of extreme weather events…” (excerpt from The United Methodist Social Principles, Community of All Creation, Creation in Peril, B. Global Warming and Climate Change)
The FEMA Act of 2025 is based on evidence-based expert recommendations for improving FEMA’s effectiveness.
As the country’s top disaster responder, the Federal Emergency Management Agency must be well-resourced and equipped to support those affected by natural disasters. The legislation would improve the agency’s effectiveness in the following ways:
- Move FEMA out of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and make it an independent, cabinet-level agency. Potential benefits of this change include budget and hiring independence, improved credibility, and faster internal decision-making
- Improve community resilience by incentivizing state mitigation projects
- Streamline the application for disaster relief funds
- Establish a Recovery Task Force charged with addressing a backlog of more than 1,000 lingering disaster declarations dating back to Hurricane Katrina
- Improve accountability and transparency by directing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to establish a centralized public website that tracks disaster assistance funding across the federal government
- Prohibit political interference in disaster response operations
The bipartisan FEMA Act of 2025 passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The United Methodist Social Principles recognize the role of climate change in worsening the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that lead to disasters:
The Social Principles further call on all people to work for the good of all:
“We further believe that God calls all members of the human family to recognize and protect the dignity and worth of all people and to work for the well-being of all God’s Creation.” (UMC Social Principles, The Political Community, Preface)
Take action below to urge your House of Representatives member to bring it to the House floor for a vote.
