FEMA is announcing $410 million in funding is available through two Fiscal Year 2019 Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) grant programs:  Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) and Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM).   These competitive grant programs assist state, tribal, territorial, and local governments in building a culture of preparedness by strengthening our nation’s ability to reduce disaster losses and protect life and property from future disaster damages.

Beginning on August 26, 2019 potential state, tribal and territory applicants can review the Fiscal Year 19 FMA and PDM Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for details such as eligibility, funding guidelines and evaluation criteria.  

The application period will open Sept. 30, 2019. Eligible applicants must apply for funding through the Mitigation eGrants system on the FEMA Grants Portal accessible at https://www.fema.gov/application-submittal.  All applications must be submitted no later than 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Jan. 31, 2020. Each program’s NOFO is available online at https://www.grants.gov/ and FEMA.gov.

FEMA is offering, and strongly encourages applicants to participate in, a series of informational webinars for interested applicants to provide an overview of the grant programs and details about the agency’s funding priorities and review process. The first information webinar is scheduled for Weds, Sept. 4 at 2:00 p.m. EDT. 

Additional webinars are also scheduled about the eGrants program for subapplicants and new users. In October, FEMA is also hosting two webinars on “Avoiding Application Pitfalls.” For a complete list of dates and times, visit https://www.fema.gov/2019-nofo-webinar-schedule-hazard-mitigation-assistance-grants. The eGrants system only allows complete applications to be submitted. 

Background: Flood Mitigation Assistance

The National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 establishes the goal of reducing or eliminating claims under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through long-term mitigation actions. For the FMA program, the agency’s predetermined funding priorities include flood mitigation planning and efforts for repetitive as well as severe repetitive loss properties.  In this application cycle, $160 million is available in FMA grant funds.  There is a set-aside of $70 million for community advance assistance and flood mitigation projects. View the NOFO at:

Grants.gov

FEMA.gov

Pre-Disaster Mitigation

As authorized under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, the PDM Program is designed to implement a sustained pre-disaster natural hazard mitigation program with the goal of reducing overall risk to the population and structures from future hazard events. FEMA selects eligible planning and project sub-applications for the PDM program which fulfill statutory requirements and competitive mitigation activities that limit duplication of other HMA grant programs as provided in the agency’s predetermined priorities for funding. For FY19, FEMA has set-aside $20 million of the $250 million in PDM funding for federally-recognized tribes.

As required in the Stafford Act, FEMA will provide the remainder of grant funding allocations to states and territories.  These funds will be awarded on a competitive basis.  FEMA’s highest priority for competitive sub-applications is multi-state/tribal mitigation initiatives. In addition, FEMA’s funding priorities are intended to avoid duplication of programs by providing pre-disaster funding to areas without post-disaster funding available through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP); and funding mitigation activities that cannot be funded by the FMA grant program. View the NOFO at:

Grants.gov

FEMA.gov

Additional Resources attached and online:

FEMA Flood Mitigation Assistance Fact Sheet

FEMA Pre-Disaster Mitigation Fact Sheet

If you have any questions, please contact FEMA-R4-External-Affairs@fema.dhs.gov.