Stafford Disaster Relief And Emergency Assistance Act
The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act) is a United States federal law designed to bring an orderly and systemic means of federal natural disaster assistance for state and local governments in carrying out their responsibilities to aid citizens. Congress' intention was to encourage states and localities to develop comprehensive disaster preparedness plans, prepare for better intergovernmental coordination in the face of a disaster, encourage the use of insurance coverage, and provide Federal assistance programs for losses due to a disaster.
The Stafford Act is a 1988 amended version of the Disaster Relief Act of 1974. It created the system in place today by which a presidential disaster declaration of an emergency triggers financial and physical assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Act gives FEMA the responsibility for coordinating government-wide relief efforts. The Federal Response Plan implements includes the contributions of 28 federal agencies and non-governmental organizations, such as the American Red Cross. It is named for Sen. Robert Stafford (years in Senate 1971 – 1989), who helped pass the law.
Congress amended it by passing the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, and again in 2006 with the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act.
Read more about Stafford Disaster Relief And Emergency Assistance Act: Criticisms, Relevant Court Cases, Proposed Amendments
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“a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off she was large in the belly.”
—William Stafford (1914–1941)
“When disaster waves, I try not to wave back.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“We realize that we are laggards from the past century, still living in what Marx kindly calls ‘the idiocy of rural life,’ and we know that our rural life is like that of the past, not like that of much of the present.”
—For the State of Vermont, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“War-making is one of the few activities that people are not supposed to view “realistically”; that is, with an eye to expense and practical outcome. In all-out war, expenditure is all-out, unprudent—war being defined as an emergency in which no sacrifice is excessive.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1994)
“Old age equalizes—we are aware that what is happening to us has happened to untold numbers from the beginning of time. When we are young we act as if we were the first young people in the world.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)