FEMA Consults Tribes and their Leadership on the Disaster Declaration Process

WASHINGTON— At the end of January, President Obama signed the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013 that amended the Stafford Act to provide federally recognized Tribal governments the option to choose whether to make a request directly to the President for a federal emergency or major disaster declaration, or to seek assistance, as they do presently, under a declaration for a State.  

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today published on the Federal Register a “Solicitation for Comments Regarding Current Procedures to Request Emergency and Major Disaster Declarations.”  This solicitation is for Tribes, Indian tribal governments and all of our stakeholders regarding the disaster declarations process.  FEMA will be accepting comments through the Federal Register Notice process (Docket ID FEMA-2013-0006 Document Number 2013-05391) at http://federalregister.gov/a/2013-05391, FEMA’s online collaboration site http://fema.ideascale.com and by email at tribalconsultation@fema.dhs.gov no later than April 22, 2013, when the open comment period ends. 

In March and April, FEMA will be conducting listening sessions with Tribal leadership, their organizations and stakeholders to present information regarding the FEMA programs, the Stafford Act and its amendment, the declarations process.  Comments will be accepted until April 22, 2013.

Visit www.fema.gov/tribal-consultations for complete schedule and read ahead materials.  More information about FEMA Tribal Affairs is available at www.fema.gov/tribal.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

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