In the United States, 2020 had more billion-dollar disasters than any other year in recorded history, even without accounting for the COVID-19 pandemic. This is part of a growing trend of more powerful disasters, such as forest fires or hurricanes, across more susceptible areas. This vulnerability is becoming understood to include a combination of the built environment, governance, and underlying social vulnerability. There is also increasing evidence as to how racial and socioeconomic disparities contribute to disaster vulnerability, and how federal assistance programs actually widen these disparities in the aftermath of a disaster.

Among federal agencies in the United States, disasters are managed by as many as 90 different programs across 20 agencies. These come with distinct triggers for activation, ranging from loss thresholds to presidential declarations. Many programs also require special Congressional appropriations to fund them. However, these programs are an uneven patchwork, leaving significant gaps in some areas, and overlapping responsibilities and authorities in others.

The new administration will need to embark on urgent disaster management reform, with a goal of ultimately simplifying our response in increasingly complex disasters. Here are four ways that the Biden administration can help streamline federal disaster management:

1. Conduct an Immediate Review

The first step is to define the scope of the problem. To this end, the incoming administration should conduct an immediate review of disaster management programs by relevant personnel in the White House’s National Security Staff in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Health and Human Services, and other relevant agencies to identify sources of redundancy and inertia in existing programs, with recommendations for interim actions to ensure more timely assistance to disaster survivors waiting on benefits and other forms of assistance.