Deep Dive: Natural Disaster Response, Planning, and Spending

No area of federal spending so directly mirrors the escalating climate change crisis than disaster spending. On a cost-adjusted basis, billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. have increased from on average 2.9 per year at an average cost of $17.8 billion in the 1980s to 16.2 disasters per year at an average annual cost of $121.4 billion from 2016-2020.

Federal floodplain policy and management has enabled unwise development that ironically contributes to catastrophic events.

Weekly Wastebasket

Federal Support for Mitigation is Key

Jul 11, 2025|

Our Take

A funding shortfall threatens FEMA’s ability to respond to a potentially devastating hurricane season

Jun 24, 2025|

From both a human and taxpayer perspective, mitigation and resilience are better ways to spend tax dollars than just responding to disasters. Federal agencies engaging in disaster response should use recovery efforts to “pre-spond” to inevitable future disasters.

The goal must be risk management and mitigation strategies that enable communities, infrastructure, and industries to become more resilient, face less risk, and better adapt to and mitigate future costs and damages of climate change.

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