Peters Reintroduces Bipartisan Bill to Authorize FEMA to Accept Tribal Government Requests for Fire Management Assistance Grants

WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Senator Gary Peters(D-MI), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, reintroduced bipartisan legislation that requires FEMA to accept requests from Tribal governments to receive a Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) Declaration. FEMA can currently accept Emergency and Major Disaster Declaration requests from Tribal governments, but the agency cannot accept FMAG requests directly from Tribes. This limitation impedes Tribes’ capacity to access federal resources for wildfire management and undermines Tribal independence by forcing them to work through state governments rather than having the option to interact directly with federal authorities for this specific type of assistance.
“When wildfires threaten Tribal communities, Tribal governments must receive the assistance they need quickly,”said Senator Peters.“This bipartisan legislation allows FEMA to directly provide Tribal governments with federal resources to combat wildfires."
Tribal governments currently face unnecessary limitations in accessing FEMA's wildfire disaster assistance. While theSandy Recovery Improvement Actgranted federally recognized Tribal governments the authority to directly request Emergency and Major Disaster Declarations from the President or to go through a state request, Tribes cannot do the same for Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) Declarations. Instead, they must work through state governments to receive FMAG assistance, despite their status as sovereign nations.
TheFire Management Assistance Grants for Tribal Governments Actaims to address this gap. This bipartisan legislation would modify theRobert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Actto give Tribal governments the same options for FMAG Declarations that they already have for other FEMA declarations: either requesting assistance directly from FEMA or to work through their state. This change would create consistency across all three types of FEMA disaster declarations: Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) Declarations, Emergency Declarations, and Major Disaster Declarations.
The bill has been endorsed by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), the National Native American Law Enforcement Association, and the National Association of Counties.
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