FEMA’s Public Assistance Grant Program: Background and Considerations for Congress

[Excerpt] The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq., henceforth the Stafford Act) confers upon the President a broad set of authorities “to alleviate the suffering and damage” of affected tribal, state, and local governments, as well as individual citizens, from disasters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been given the responsibility of administering almost all of the President’s Stafford Act authorities through other law, a series of Executive Orders, and a DHS delegation. FEMA has established the Public Assistance (PA) Grant Program by combining the authority of multiple sections of the Stafford Act. The PA Program provides financial grant assistance to states, tribes, and local communities both in the response to and recovery from significant disasters. Between FY2000-FY2013, the PA Program has provided $52.6 billion in grant assistance to help communities pay for an array of eligible response and recovery activities, including debris removal, emergency protective measures, and the repair, replacement, or restoration of disaster-damaged, publicly owned facilities and the facilities of certain private nonprofit (PNP) organizations. The authorities of the PA Program were most recently significantly amended by the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act (Division B of P.L. 113- 2, the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013; henceforth SRIA). For a brief legislative history of PA Program authorities, see Appendix A. This report provides background on key elements of the PA Program, such as the eligibility of applicants, the types of assistance available, and the methods FEMA uses for awarding grant assistance. Summary analysis of federal obligations for PA Program assistance is also provided along important variables, such as the distribution of federal obligations across the PA Program eligible categories of work assistance. The report concludes with discussion of several policy issues that Congress may wish to consider when evaluating the PA Program in the future, including considerations of significant prospective changes to the PA Program and the role of the PA Program in the context of other federal agency disaster assistance authorities

FEMA's Community Disaster Loan Program: History, Analysis, and Issues for Congress

This report compares and analyzes three different categories of loans issued in different time periods in the program's history: "traditional" loans issued between 1974 and 2005, in 2007, and between 2009 and 2011 (TCDLs); "special" (SCDLs) loans issued in 2005-2006 following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; and loans issued under unique provisions in 2008 (2008 CDLs)

Congressional Primer on Responding to Major Disasters and Emergencies

This report provides information that can aid policy makers as they navigate through the many levels of responsibility of dealing with emergencies, and numerous policy pressure points, by having an understanding of the laws and administrative policies governing the disaster response and recovery process. The report also reviews the legislative framework that exists for providing federal assistance

Povezanost između snage trupa i pokazatelja sportske uspješnosti

Development of core muscle strength and power to improve sport performance has been a controversial issue yielding mixed results. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between two core field tests emphasizing power and measures of sport performance. Participants were twenty healthy, recreationally active males (age 23.40±1.88 yrs, height 174.63±5.81 cm, mass 76.08±7.67 kg). Participants were tested on four performance variables (40-yd sprint, shuttle run [5-10-5], vertical jump, and 1RM back squat) and two core field tests (front abdominal power throw [FAPT] and side abdominal power throw [SAPT]). Results demonstrated significant moderate correlations between the FAPT and 1RM back squat (r=.652) and relative back squat (r=.509). No other significant correlations were found. Results indicate that although the FAPT and SAPT tests are easy to perform in the field, most, but not all, performance measures were unrelated to core power. In order to properly assess the core and its role in human performance, it is necessary to evaluate sport-specific muscle actions and movements.Razvijanje mišićne jakosti i snage trupa kako bi se unaprijedila sportska izvedba i uspješnost jest kontroverzan znanstveni i stručni problem istraživanje kojega daje miješane rezultate. Cilj je ovoga istraživanja bilo utvrđivanje povezanosti između dva terenska testa za procjenu snage trupa i pokazatelja sportske uspješnosti. Uzorak ispitanika činilo je 20 zdravih, rekreativno aktivnih muškaraca (dob 23,40±1,88 godina, tjelesna visina 174,63±5,81 cm, tjelesna masa 76,08±7,67 kg). Sportska uspješnost ispitanika procijenjena je četirima testovima (sprint na 40 jarda, shuttle run: 5-10-5 jarda, vertikalni skok i maksimalni stražnji čučanj), a snaga njihova trupa (core) procijenjena je dvama terenskim testovima (eksplozivno bacanje medicinke prema naprijed – FAPT, i eksplozivno bacanje medicinke strance – SAPT). Rezultati analiza su pokazali značajne umjerene korelacije između FAPT i maksimalnoga stražnjega čučnja (r=,652) i relativnoga stražnjega čučnja (r=,509). Nisu utvrđene značajne korelacije između ostalih testova. Rezultati pokazuju da, iako je terenske testove FAPT i SAPT vrlo lako provoditi, većina, ali ne i sve varijable koje procjenjuju sportsku uspješnost nisu u korelaciji sa snagom trupa procijenjenom navedenim testovima. Da bi se adekvatno procijenila snaga trupa i njena uloga u sportskoj izvedbi i uspješnosti, potrebno je vrednovati sportu svojstvene mišićne akcije i kretnje

CRS Insight

This report describes presidential direction to federal agencies on floodplain management and flood resilience and presents considerations for Congress

MinION Analysis and Reference Consortium: Phase 1 data release and analysis

The advent of a miniaturized DNA sequencing device with a high-throughput contextual sequencing capability embodies the next generation of large scale sequencing tools. The MinION™ Access Programme (MAP) was initiated by Oxford Nanopore Technologies™ in April 2014, giving public access to their USB-attached miniature sequencing device. The MinION Analysis and Reference Consortium (MARC) was formed by a subset of MAP participants, with the aim of evaluating and providing standard protocols and reference data to the community. Envisaged as a multi-phased project, this study provides the global community with the Phase 1 data from MARC, where the reproducibility of the performance of the MinION was evaluated at multiple sites. Five laboratories on two continents generated data using a control strain of Escherichia coli K-12, preparing and sequencing samples according to a revised ONT protocol. Here, we provide the details of the protocol used, along with a preliminary analysis of the characteristics of typical runs including the consistency, rate, volume and quality of data produced. Further analysis of the Phase 1 data presented here, and additional experiments in Phase 2 of E. coli from MARC are already underway to identify ways to improve and enhance MinION performance

Deep short-read sequencing of chromosome 17 from the mouse strains A/J and CAST/Ei identifies significant germline variation and candidate genes that regulate liver triglyceride levels

Methods for accurate identification of nucleotide and structural variation using de novo short read sequencing of mouse chromosomes are described