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
Famous quotes containing the words stafford, disaster, relief, emergency, assistance and/or act:
“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)
“It was so long since I’d seen masses of young men that I’d forgotten how much pleasanter men of between twenty and thirty were to be around with than older men. It isnt so true of women. When I was in my twenties I thought the grown adults I ran into were a disaster and now I know I was right.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
““... There, there,
What you complain of, all the nations share.
Their effort is a mounting ecstasy
That when it gets too exquisite to bear
Will find relief in one burst. You shall see.
That’s what a certain bomb was sent to be.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“In this country, you never pull the emergency brake, even when there is an emergency. It is imperative that the trains run on schedule.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“At a certain age, we have already been struck by love; it no longer develops alone, according to its own mysteries and fateful laws while our hearts stand by startled and passive. We come to its assistance ... Recognizing one of its symptoms, we recall, we bring back to life the others. Since we possess its song engraved in its totality within us, we do not need for a woman to tell us the beginning—filled with admiration inspired by beauty—to find the continuation.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“You are as still as a yardstick. You have a doll’s kiss.
The brain whirls in a fit. The brain is not evident.
I have gone to that same place without a germ or a stroke.
A little solo act that lady with the brain that broke.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)