Federal Disaster Spending: Trends and Observations Between 2010-2019

Natural disasters are an increasing threat to individuals, businesses and communities across the United States. However, analysis on federal spending tends to focus on singular programs, or on supplemental funding after large-scale events; there has not been a comprehensive evaluation of disaster spending or an easily accessible, central repository of the programs available. This research looks at Federal disaster spending trends over the last ten years, focusing on the types of programs, the distribution among the disaster management phases (i.e. mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery), and the distribution between individuals (for-profit businesses & households), nonprofits/organizations, cities, and other entities. This study uses the annual Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, which has been digitized for analysis through Able2Extract, Foxit, Excel, and STATA. Disaster-related programs were found then found through keyword search and an inclusion/exclusion protocol. This work presents preliminary findings for years 2010-2019 and will eventually be extended to additional years of analysis.