{
  "id": "R44415",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R44415",
  "active": true,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 450790,
      "date": "2016-03-15",
      "retrieved": "2016-03-24T16:54:03.952492",
      "title": "Five Years of the Budget Control Act\u2019s Disaster Relief Adjustment",
      "summary": "Signed into law on August 2, 2011, the Budget Control Act (P.L. 112-25, or BCA) established a set of limits on federal spending, as well as a set of mechanisms to adjust those limits to accommodate special categories of spending that has special priority. One of these mechanisms\u2014a limited allowable adjustment to pay for the congressionally designated costs of major disasters under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (hereinafter \u201cthe disaster relief allowable adjustment\u201d or \u201callowable adjustment\u201d)\u2014represented a new approach to paying for disaster relief. By providing this flexibility in the budget caps, Congress changed the way it approached funding disaster relief and recovery efforts.\nThe disaster relief allowable adjustment is based on a modified rolling average of annual federal government appropriations for the costs of major disasters, pursuant to a methodology laid out in the BCA. Annually, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) looks back at the past 10 years of disaster relief appropriations. For fiscal years prior to FY2012, OMB has identified appropriations associated with major disaster declarations for use in the calculation. For FY2012 and later years, OMB relies on explicit Congressional designations of appropriations as disaster relief pursuant to the BCA. OMB takes these 10 annual totals of disaster relief appropriations, drops the highest and lowest years, and averages the remaining 8. This modified average is then supplemented by any unused amounts from the average calculated for the previous fiscal year. This calculation generates a limit up to which the discretionary budget caps can be adjusted to accommodate appropriations on major disasters. In practice, this limitation on the size of the disaster relief adjustment has also limited the application of the disaster relief designation. Funds that would meet the definition of disaster relief may not be classified as such. \nImplementation of the disaster relief allowable adjustment has allowed Congress to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency\u2019s Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) to a greater degree through annual appropriations, rather than through supplemental appropriations as it had before enactment of the BCA. Allowing the discretionary budget limitations to be adjusted to pay for disaster costs has removed, to an extent, the costs of disaster relief from competing with other annual priorities for funding. However, the allowable adjustment is expected to drop significantly in the near future as two of the highest disaster cost years roll out of the calculated average used in setting the adjustment. \nThis report examines how the adjustment has functioned over the first five years, and what the future of disaster relief (as defined by the BCA) may look like for the next five years and beyond. Under current law, the allowable adjustment is expected to decline from a high of almost $18.5 billion in FY2015 to between $7.5 billion and $9.5 billion by the time the BCA discretionary spending limits expire after FY2021.\nAs Congress considers budget planning and potential changes to how it budgets for disaster assistance for a variety of different types of incidents, it may consider whether the allowable adjustment has worked as planned. Congress may also consider changes to how it addresses disaster costs, through changes to the existing structure of the allowable adjustment, or by revisiting other laws.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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      "topics": []
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  "topics": [
    "American Law",
    "Appropriations"
  ]
}