SMART Act

The SMART Act requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to carry out a detailed study of its hazard mitigation activities across the United States. These activities include projects that aim to reduce damage from natural hazards, such as floods, storms, fires, and earthquakes. The study must look at how effective these projects are, whether they save money over the long term, and what strategic impact they have on communities and the federal government. The bill tells FEMA to measure several specific outcomes. FEMA must review how its mitigation work reduces federal and non-federal spending on disaster response and recovery, improves community preparedness, and affects the availability and cost of hazard-related insurance. FEMA also has to examine how mitigation supports the continued operation of critical services and infrastructure during and after disasters, and how much long-term cost savings and measurable returns on investment these efforts create. To do this, FEMA must use both numbers and descriptions, including analysis of avoided losses, changes in community risk ratings and insurance uptake, and case studies from different regions and hazard types. FEMA will draw on data from federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial agencies, independent assessments and academic research, and its own program and disaster recovery records. The agency may consult with the Government Accountability Office, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and other governments and research institutions. Within 18 months of the bill becoming law, and then every year after that, FEMA must send reports to key committees in the House and Senate. These reports must lay out the findings of the study and provide recommendations for improving program design, targeting, oversight, and any needed legislative or administrative changes. FEMA must also post the initial study results on its website within two years in a searchable, user-friendly format, including summarized findings, datasets (with security and privacy protections), maps and visualizations, and clear explanations of methods, data sources, and limits. Each future annual report must also be posted online within 60 days of being sent to Congress, and the study itself must be updated every year with new data, methods, and stakeholder feedback.

FEMA spends significant funds on hazard mitigation to reduce the impact of disasters before they happen. This bill aims to show, in a more structured and transparent way, how much those investments reduce damage and spending on response and recovery, and how they affect things like community preparedness and insurance markets. Clear evidence about benefits and costs can shape how future mitigation dollars are targeted. For communities, insurance companies, and policymakers, the results could influence where projects are built, which hazards are prioritized, and how much emphasis is placed on preventing damage versus paying for recovery. Making the data and findings public may also help local officials, researchers, and the public better understand which types of projects perform best. The exact future impacts on funding levels or specific programs are not defined in the bill and would depend on how Congress and agencies respond to the study’s recommendations.

• Directs FEMA to conduct a comprehensive, nationwide study of FEMA-funded hazard mitigation activities.
• Requires assessment of how mitigation programs affect federal and non-federal disaster response and recovery spending.
• Mandates evaluation of impacts on community preparedness, critical services continuity, and infrastructure resilience.
• Instructs FEMA to analyze effects on hazard-related insurance availability, affordability, and insurance penetration.
• Calls for both quantitative and qualitative analysis of avoided losses and returns on investment.
• Requires use of data from multiple levels of government, independent third parties, academic studies, and FEMA’s internal records.
• Allows FEMA to consult with GAO, NIST, and state, local, Tribal, territorial, and research partners when conducting the study.
• Sets a deadline of 18 months after enactment for FEMA to submit the initial report to specified committees in both chambers, with annual reports thereafter.
• Requires each report to include findings plus recommendations for improving program design, targeting, oversight, and potential legislative or administrative actions.
• Orders FEMA to make the initial study results publicly available online within 2 years of enactment, in a searchable, user-friendly format.
• Specifies that publicly released data must exclude information that would compromise national security or privacy.
• Requires public visualizations, geographic maps of mitigation outcomes, and clear explanations of methods and data limits.
• Mandates that each annual report be posted on FEMA’s website within 60 days after submission to Congress.
• Requires FEMA to update the study annually with the latest data, revised methods, and stakeholder feedback.

• The bill requires the mitigation study to be repeated every year, not just done once, effectively creating an ongoing evaluation program.
• FEMA is directed not only to report findings but also to propose legislative and administrative recommendations, potentially shaping future law and policy changes.
• Public reporting must include maps and visualizations of mitigation outcomes, which could highlight geographic differences in where mitigation funds have been used or have had strong measured impacts.
• The requirement to protect national security and privacy when publishing data may limit how detailed some public information can be, even while promoting transparency overall.