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1 1 (March 24, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govecui0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Updated March 24, 2021 Calculation and Use of the Disaster Relief Allowable Adjustment The Budget Control Act (P.L. 112-25, hereinafter the BCA) established limits on federal spending, as well as mechanisms to adjust those limits to accommodate spending that has special priority. One of these mechanisms-a limited allowable adjustment to discretionary spending limits to pay for the congressionally designated costs of major disasters under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (P.L. 100-707; hereinafter the Stafford Act)-represented a new approach to paying for disaster relief. In the past, while some funding for disaster costs had been included in annual appropriations measures as part of the regular funding process, many of these costs had been designated as emergency requirements and were included in supplemental appropriations measures on an ad hoc basis. This disaster relief designation allowed a limited amount of additional appropriations for disaster costs into the annual appropriations process, instead of relying on emergency designations and supplemental appropriations bills. The formula to calculate the size of the adjustment was revised in 2018, but under current law, the adjustment will expire at the end of FY2021. Calculating the Maximum Allowable Adjustment for Disaster Relief The maximum size of the allowable adjustment, as defined in 2 U.S.C. §901(b)(2)(D), was based on a modified 10- year rolling average of disaster relief appropriations annually reviewed and calculated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). To establish amounts for the calculation prior to FY2012, OMB identified appropriations associated with major disaster declarations. For FY2012 and later years, OMB relied on explicit congressional designations of appropriations as disaster relief pursuant to the BCA. The top of Figure 1 shows the appropriations amounts used for FY2001-FY2020 and the allowable adjustments calculated for FY2012-FY2021. The calculated average disregarded the high and low funding years in the 10-year data set. If Congress did not fully exercise the allowable adjustment, the unused portion could be rolled forward into the next fiscal year-however, in calculations for FY2012-FY2017, this carryover expired if unused in the next fiscal year. The second part of Figure 1 shows the calculation of the adjustment for FY2017. Annual disaster relief budget authority totals used for the FY2017 allowable adjustment are darkened. The Effect of One-Year Carryover A more detailed look at FY2012-FY2018 in the third part of Figure 1 shows the impact of this one-year carryover. While carryover allowed for slightly greater use of the allowable adjustment than the rolling average alone in FY2013 and FY2017, the roughly $12 billion of additional carryover that was available in FY2015 and FY2016 expired unused. Figure I. Calculating the Allowable Adjustment (in billions of nominal dollars of budget authority) Disaster Funding and the Allowable Adjustment Disaster Relief Budget Authority (DRBA) -- Allowable Adjust ment, Orig. Calculation Allowable Adjustment, Mod. Calculation BILLIONS - DRBA+ Emergency Disaster Funding $40 $20 $0 t L -iN Mi s 0 N 00 NJ . M -H as 0 W r~ca Cri o a C C 0 C C C 0 0 - 1 .--1 - -H - - -t .-H ti J N OMB CALCULATION DESIGNATED (FY12-FY21) Calculating the FY2017 Allowable Adjustment Allowable Adjustment is based on previous years' DRBA: Average of previous 10 year DRBA BILLIONS after dropping the highest and Iowestyears 540 $20 $L oH c7 ol o I o o : 0 U i ,C r9 c-IJ r-1 . c- .-1 rI C ' Single-Year Carryover and the Adjustment BILLIONS Allowable $20 Adjustmert Carryover from $15- Prior Year 10 year Average Diaster Relief t-Budget _ Authority Source: CRS analysis of data from OMB sequestration reports. Notes: DRBA=Disaster Relief Budget Authority. Red arrows indicate the value is beyond the scale: For the total DRBA and https://crsreports.cong re,

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