The Public Assistance (PA) program is FEMA’s largest and most crucial grant program, devoted to helping communities stabilize, maintain operations, and return to “normal” as quickly as physically possible after a disaster.

The Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA) introduced several significant reforms that provided even greater flexibility to FEMA’s Public Assistance (PA) program applicants and modified the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP).

The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act was a direct response to the failures of federal response following Hurricane Katrina and was the most significant reform of the Stafford Act to that point in FEMA’s history.