Fairness in Federal Disaster Declarations Act of 2026

This legislation mandates that the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) amend its existing rules for evaluating disaster assistance within 120 days of enactment. The revised regulations will establish specific, weighted criteria for determining the need for both public and individual disaster aid, aiming to provide a more structured and equitable assessment process. For public assistance , the new rules will assign weighted valuations to factors such as localized impacts (40%), estimated cost (10%), and the economic circumstances of the local and state economies (10%). Similarly, for individual assistance , criteria like concentration of damages (20%), trauma (20%), special populations (20%), and local economic considerations (5%) will receive specific weights. These amended rules are designed to apply retroactively to any major disaster declaration requested by a Governor and denied on or after January 1, 2012.