2025 saw the third-highest number of billion-dollar disasters on record, with 23 weather and climate-related events in the U.S. that each caused more than $1 billion in damages. Or at least we think so.

The federal government used to track and report the number of billion-dollar disasters impacting the U.S. every year in the publicly available Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters dataset. Published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this tool broke down billion-dollar disasters by type (drought, flooding, freeze, etc.) frequency, states impacted, deaths caused, and total cost. Their time series, which goes back to 1980, painted a clear picture—the frequency and combined costs of billion-dollar disasters and extreme weather events are on the rise. At least, it has been as of 2024.

In 2025, the Administration discontinued the database under the banner of “evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes.” While all past data and reports remain available online, NOAA is no longer updating it. The science nonprofit Climate Central, which has picked up the project, reports that the 23 billion-dollar disasters in 2025 were the third most on record, behind 2024 (27 disasters) and 2023 (28 disasters). The combined cost of $115 billion was the 9th highest on record. And this is a year when no major hurricanes made landfall in the U.S.—a disaster type that accounted for 18% of billion-dollar disasters over the last year and 58% of the combined costs.

The administration’s abandonment of disaster tracking matters because there is a clear line between disaster costs and federal budgeting decisions. Disaster spending is often treated as unknowable or unavoidable, but decades of data tell otherwise. Yes, we never know exactly when disaster will strike, and have certainly seen our fair share of unexpected tragedies, but we know that disaster will strike and that these strikes are increasing with frequency and intensity. Taxpayers and communities need to be prepared—that includes planning for the “unexpected” costs of disaster response and making preventative investments to mitigate future costs. Smarter spending depends on good information, not on pretending problems disappear when the data do.

A clear and transparent accounting of disaster costs is also crucial for improving accountability. Federal disaster response should reduce future risk to people and property by ensuring infrastructure is built back more resilient and communities have the tools they need to better prepare. When disasters were counted consistently, agencies had to explain why costs kept rising. As the data disappears, so does the pressure to show that federal spending, like mitigation, is actually working.

Serious disaster reform is coming. Policymakers are finally seeing the writing on the wall and know we need to act now to reform our current system. Members of Congress have introduced new legislation to reform FEMA and once again raise it to a cabinet-level status. The Administration is talking about getting rid of FEMA altogether and shifting more responsibility to the states and individual households. But no matter what these changes look like (although we at TCS think some options are much better than others), without detailed cost data decisionmakers are flying blind.

This shrinking of federal data is unfortunately part of a growing trend. Across agencies, key databases are disappearing. First, the Office of Management and Budget removed its “apportionment” data site—only restoring if after losing a lawsuit. The USDA’s Food Security Supplement to the Current Population Survey was abruptly cancelled last fall. And the Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which tracks where greenhouse gases come from, how much is emitted, and by whom.

Taxpayers deserve evidence-based budgeting and they deserve access to the evidence behind federal spending decisions. Transparency is not an abstract ideal, it’s a requirement.