Federal budget plans for disasters

Citation

(2009), "Federal budget plans for disasters", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 18 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2009.07318dab.002

Federal budget plans for disasters

Article Type: News items From: Disaster Prevention and Management, Volume 18, Issue 4

Rather than assume the nation will not be hit by expensive disasters, President Barack Obama’s federal budget includes – for the first time – contingency funds to deal with them.

Assessing the statistical likelihood of disasters for any given year, the budget allots $88.2 billion in disaster funds for 2010-2014, and $225.5 billion for 2010-2019.

Official disaster declarations have been increasing over the last 55 years or so, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. For instance, there were seven official disasters in 1958. By 2008, there were 75. There have been an average of 32 disasters a year in the USA since 1953.

“One can never know what kind of disaster or unexpected emergency may occur that will require the help of the federal government”, according to the budget statement, A New Era of Responsibility. “If we do not account for these costs as we project the federal government’s future fiscal health, we run the risk of allowing these unforeseen events to cause even more economic pain and derail our long-term growth … This omission is irresponsible, and has permitted past administrations to project deficits that were lower than were likely to occur.”

(Extracted from Natural Hazards Observer, May 2009.)