Tracking U.S. Federal Disaster Spending: The Disaster Dollar Database

The Disaster Dollar Database is a tool that tracks the major sources of grant-based federal funding for disaster recovery in the United States.

In the United States, disaster recovery is a three-legged stool: government funding sits alongside insurance and private funds (including commercial loans, as well as charitable donations). There is no comprehensive place where disaster survivors, policymakers, and the media can see the different kinds of federal assistance available for response to individual disasters. This database does not encompass the full range of federal grantmaking, but it makes visible the major sources of grant-based funding to individuals and communities through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The database includes disasters for which FEMA has activated either its Public Assistance or Individuals and Households Program and identifies HUD’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery grants associated with these disasters, if any. It currently goes back to 2003.

Please reach out to pressoffice@ceip.org for media inquiries about the database.

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Climate Mobility

Climate change is affecting the habitability of many areas of the United States and the developing world. This research pillar generates innovative thinking to support people on the move in the context of climate change, as well as limiting climate change as a driver of displacement. Our research focuses on policies that enable climate mobility, including disaster aid, adaptation finance, insurance markets, and the governance of cross-border climate mobility. This pillar focuses on the United States and select climate-vulnerable developing countries. The Disaster Dollar Database and related research is part of this pillar.

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in the media

Industrial Policy Needs an Immigration Policy

Why bringing jobs back to the United States requires letting in more foreign workers.

Milan Vaishnav

Foreign Affairs

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Disaster Dollar Database

The rising pace and cost of disasters is cause for alarm, both because of the likelihood of major disruption in so many people’s lives, and because of the potential for systemic failures in the housing and insurance markets that could lead to wider, global economic shocks.

Sarah Labowitz

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Rising Seas Triggered Climate Lawsuits: What Now?

July 31, 2024

Climate change litigation is experiencing an unprecedented moment. More and more states are turning to international tribunals to seek guidance on a key question: what are their obligations under international law to address the climate crisis?