Chapter 6 › IV. Applicant-Owned and Purchased Equipment

How does FEMA pay for our own trucks and machinery, or equipment we had to buy?

FEMA term

Force account equipment

Short answer

FEMA pays an hourly rate for the time your equipment is actually operating on eligible work, including permanently mounted generators. Vehicles can be paid by documented mileage if that costs less. If you had to buy equipment to respond, FEMA can fund the purchase plus either the hourly rate or actual fuel and maintenance.

What FEMA requires

Rates apply only to operating time. Transporting equipment to an eligible site is eligible.
Standby time is not eligible, unless the operator used the equipment intermittently for more than half of the working hours that day.
Purchased equipment must have been justifiably needed, and disposition rules apply when you are done with it.

Documentation

Small projects: an itemized summary by equipment type with total usage hours and total cost; for purchases, total cost.
Large projects: equipment type and attachments (year, make, model, size, capacity, horsepower or wattage), sites used, FEMA equipment code or your rate schedule, and the operator’s name with date and hours each day; for purchases, invoices or receipts.

Source: PAPPG Table 12.

Watch out · Govstar practitioner advice

Log equipment hours daily alongside the operator’s timesheet. Reconstructing logs later is the most common gap.

Govstar summarizes FEMA’s Public Assistance Program and Policy Guide in plain language and links to the official text. Govstar is independent and not affiliated with FEMA. This is general guidance, not legal advice.