Recent hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding have highlighted the challenges the federal government faces in responding effectively to natural disasters. Chapter 1 discusses FEMA’s progress and challenges related to disaster resilience, response, recovery, and workforce management. Chapter 2 addresses key challenges FEMA faced contracting for goods and services in response to these disasters. FEMA, a component of DHS, provides preparedness grants to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to help prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate terrorist attacks or other disasters. The objectives of chapter 3 are to determine the extent to which FEMA is implementing leading practices for reengineering its grants management processes and incorporating needs into IT requirements; assess the reliability of the program’s estimated costs and schedule; and determine the extent to which FEMA is addressing key cybersecurity practices. Chapter 4 describes SHSP and UASI grant awards during fiscal years 2008 through 2018, and factors affecting grant distributions; and examines the steps that FEMA has taken to strengthen its risk assessment model for allocating preparedness grants, and any additional opportunities to improve the model. Chapter 5 addresses progress and challenges in FEMA’s efforts to manage preparedness grants and GAO’s prior recommendations to strengthen these programs.
