Congress dramatically expanded federal support for disaster recovery by approving legislation Tuesday that could add billions of dollars to rebuilding communities after storms and wildfires.
The measure is expected to increase the amount of funding that goes to lower-income areas and households through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a move that analysts say would rebalance federal disaster aid by steering some money away from wealthier communities.
“This really gets money to people who need it the most, who don’t have insurance or resources,” said Andrew Rumbach, who co-leads the Urban Institute’s Climate and Communities Program.
The overwhelming support for the legislation in the House and Senate, which passed the measure on Monday, underscores bipartisan backing for a strong federal role in disaster recovery as President Donald Trump has scaled back spending by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and erased some civil rights protections for disaster survivors. It also comes as Trump has overseen a lopsided dissemination of disaster aid by approving nearly every request by Republican-led states, while rejecting the vast majority of requests from states with Democratic governors and senators. Lawmakers described those discrepancies as “un-American” last week.
The aid approved by Congress on Tuesday will be allocated by HUD, which has sporadically helped fund disaster recovery since the early 1990s. The legislation transforms HUD disaster aid from an ad hoc program that has money only when Congress approves special funding to a standing program with an annual budget.
The disaster provisions are included in a broad bill aimed at reducing housing costs that Trump was expected to sign in the Capitol on Wednesday. He abruptly canceled the event about 90 minutes before it was set to begin, in a move to pressure lawmakers to pass a bill requiring voters to show identification that proves they are U.S. citizens.
“This is a statement that the federal government has a role in facilitating long-term recovery,” said Noah Patton, director of disaster recovery at the National Low Income Housing Coalition who supported the legislation.
Congress has not approved HUD disaster aid since it authorized $12 billion in December 2024 for states such as North Carolina that were damaged by Hurricane Helene. The money also helped Hawaii recover from deadly wildfires that swept through Maui in August 2023. The inaction has irked California, where officials have sought tens of billions in HUD disaster aid to rebuild after the Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025.
“Right now, each time a disaster happens, communities in crisis are forced to wait for Congress to pass a disaster funding bill before HUD can help,” said Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat who helped write the measure, in a statement. “Our provision changes the law so they no longer have to wait. As soon as a disaster strikes, HUD will be able to help communities begin the process of recovery.”
HUD disaster aid is used to reconstruct damaged housing, businesses and infrastructure that get little or no aid from FEMA or the Small Business Administration, which offers low-interest disaster loans. Federal law requires that state, county and municipal recipients of HUD aid spend at least 70 percent on low- or moderate-income communities and households.
But HUD aid is notoriously slow to arrive in communities, often taking several years from when a disaster occurs. It often takes Congress months, or even a year, to build enough political support to approve the funding.
Once the money is approved, HUD spends more time writing lengthy rules to establish how the funds can be spent. And before states, counties or municipalities can spend a dime, they must go through a time-consuming process to write a spending plan, which HUD must approve.
The new legislation aims to eliminate the need for Congress to periodically approve HUD aid and to shorten the department’s allocation process.
“We were looking at ways to speed the path of long-term recovery funds via HUD and do that in a much more transparent and consistent way,” Patton said. “Relying on Congress to pass these ad hoc spending bills periodically is fraught depending on the politics.”
Advocates have fought for the changes adopted by Congress this week since the late 2010s. The measure was tucked into a larger bill aimed at creating more housing. In April 2019, a HUD contractor recommended making disaster aid a standing program in the department, but the first Trump administration withheld the report for nearly two years.
The legislation passed this week establishes HUD disaster aid as a standing program for three years. An earlier draft proposed seven years, but it was shortened due to “a lot of reluctance by House Republicans to create a new federal program,” said Rumbach of the Urban Institute.
By authorizing the program for three years, the bill gives congressional appropriators a green light to allocate money to HUD through a separate budgeting process.
HUD has allocated $112 billion in disaster aid since 1993, when Congress approved the first tranche of money after Hurricane Andrew devastated the Miami area. The money is spent through an offshoot of HUD’s well-known Community Development Block Grant program. FEMA has spent roughly $500 billion in the same period, including approximately $150 billion on the pandemic.
More than half of the HUD money went to three jurisdictions that were hit by catastrophic hurricanes: Louisiana, Puerto Rico and Texas. Each one received more than $15 billion, HUD records show. By contrast, 14 states and American Samoa have received less than $100 million. Three states — Arizona, Utah and Wyoming — have received no HUD disaster aid.
