FEMA Reform

Sen. Peter Welch, right, talks with Bruce Kaufman, owner of Riverside Farms, which experienced severe crop losses during the summer floods of 2023 and 2024. Welch says bureaucratic inefficiencies at FEMA have hobbled the recovery process for individuals and municipalities.Peter Hirschfeld/Vermont Public Sen. Peter Welch…

BURLINGTON, VT—U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced the FEMA Operational Transparency Act, a new bill directing the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit how the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is spending it’s budget, and recommend ways to reduce the Agency’s bloated administrative costs.…

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) joined Senators Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and James Lankford (R-Okla.) on the Disaster Survivors Fairness Act, bipartisan legislation to reform the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Individual Assistance program and improve how FEMA helps individuals…

Fourteen months after last summer's floods, municipal officials such as Stannard Select Board member Katy Knuth, seen here standing in front of a washed-out bridge on Stannard Mountain Road, are still waiting on reimbursement from FEMA for the cost of repairing damage to roads and…

Sen. Peter Welch tours flood devastation on Red Village Road on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024 (Photos by Paul Hayes) LYNDON — Federal officials this week promised to fix the broken Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster aid process. Touring flood-damaged east Lyndon on Monday, Sen.…