U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on October 7, 2025. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) sent a letter to Congress urging returning lawmakers to prioritize legislation on a FEMA reform bill that would reduce bureaucracy and incentivize loss prevention and mitigation projects at the state and local levels.
In a letter addressed to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Jimi Grande, NAMIC senior vice president of federal and political affairs, asked the legislators to pass the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans Act, or HR 4669. On Sep. 3, the Act passed out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 57 to 3.
"This level of support and the proposal's thoughtful and pragmatic approach are signs that the bill balances needed public policy reforms without the risk of upending the U.S. emergency management mechanism," Grande said. "For months prior to the bill's introduction, the sponsors spent extensive time considering feedback across hundreds of industries touched by emergency management and disaster response planning."
The bill was introduced by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Sam Graves, R-Mo., and Ranking Member Rick Larsen, D-Wash., and would return the FEMA administrator to a cabinet-level position to increase accountability and efficiency at the agency, and streamline the federal disaster response and recovery system to reduce bureaucracy and incentivize loss prevention and mitigation projects at the state and local levels.
Additional provisions include addressing depoliticization and modernization of an agency that both parties agree is fundamentally broken amid increasingly frequent extreme weather events.
“As Congress contemplates the past and future of FEMA, practical implementation mechanisms and potential partnerships with not only states, but also the private and non-profit sectors should be key components,” Grande said in the letter. “The federal government sits in a unique position to facilitate coordination between all interested stakeholders while playing the most important role of all as a trusted and truthful communicator and champion of both pre-disaster mitigation and post-disaster recovery.”
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