Top Line Messages:

 • FEMA is simplifying the Public Assistance application and funding process to address the magnitude of this event and allow local officials to receive eligible funding more quickly.

 • Public Assistance applicants are empowered to drive their own recovery and directly apply for reimbursement through a streamlined process designed to eliminate portions of the process that are unnecessary for the unique circumstances of, and types of assistance available for, response to COVID-19.

 • While FEMA is making adjustments to streamline processes, we are keeping the adjustments as simple as possible and not deviating from the basic process with which experienced recipients and applicants are familiar. 

• Funding is immediately available should local officials need expedited assistance. 

• This is a dynamic environment. FEMA will be quick and clear in communicating changes. But the entire emergency management community should prepare for further adjustments in the delivery of Public Assistance for COVID-19 as we work together to assist the American people. Applicants are empowered to drive their own recovery and directly apply for reimbursement without an assigned Program Delivery Manager.

 • The nature and scale of this national event are beyond anything the emergency management community has seen, with the most simultaneous FEMA PA applicants and project worksheets in the history of the program. 

• Additionally, FEMA and recipient staff must alter work practices to follow CDC and local health official social distancing guidelines in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. 

• To scale to an event of this size and maintain social distancing, it is not possible for FEMA or recipients to proactively work with every applicant to develop their subgrant project worksheets, as would be the case in a traditional disaster.

 • Instead, FEMA is allowing applicants to directly apply for assistance in the PA Grants Portal at https://grantee.fema.gov.

 • This prevents the need for applicants to wait on the availability of limited federal and recipient resources and provide applicants a transparent environment to request and quickly receive federal assistance.  

Expedited funding is available to interested states, tribes and territories: o Expedited funding enables FEMA to provide 50 percent of the estimated project cost quickly based on limited information and provide the remainder of funding upon receipt of documentation. o Expedited projects can be processed in a timely manner, in most cases less than a week, when the recipient quickly provides information and responds to FEMA requests.