Dear USET/USET SPF Family,
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced that it will be hosting two informational webinars for Tribal Nations on its recently finalized, “Achieving Equitable Recovery: A Post-Disaster Guide for Local Officials and Leaders” (Equitable Recovery Post-Disaster Guide, or Guide). The Guide is meant to instill equity as a foundation of emergency management through designing and executing a more inclusive and equitable recovery planning process. The Guide includes community examples, a case study, toolkits, and resources for Tribal, state, local governments to use to restore and rebuild communities after a disaster. The Guide is also meant to highlight best practices and lessons learned to ground FEMA’s work in equity and meeting communities where we are.
Details regarding the upcoming informational webinars on the Equitable Recovery Post-Disaster Guide are as follows—
In April 2023, FEMA held a Tribal consultation on a draft version of its Equitable Recovery Post-Disaster Guide to solicit input from Tribal Leaders on its contents prior to final publication. On May 11, 2023, USET SPF submitted comments to FEMA in response to this consultation expressing appreciation for FEMA’s efforts to engage Tribal Leaders on this important matter, especially to ensure local coordination and disaster recovery efforts address issues facing our communities. We generally supported the draft Equitable Post-Disaster Guide, but also reminded FEMA to uphold its trust and treaty obligations and work directly with Tribal Nations to achieve equitable, post-disaster recovery. We emphasized that state and local governments must be held accountable for sharing resources and coordinating with Tribal Nations, as well as to include references to pre-disaster planning information relevant to Tribal Nations in the draft Equitable Post-Disaster Guide.
USET SPF appreciates that the final Guide includes increased references, resources, and case studies that could be leveraged by Tribal Nations in achieving equitable post-disaster recovery. In addition, while USET SPF appreciates expansion of language on pages 48 and 49 of the Guide that state and local governments must be respectful of the legal, policy, relationship building, and cultural aspects of engaging with and providing resources to Tribal Nations, we will continue to remind FEMA that working on a direct, Nation-to-Nation basis with Tribal Nations will always be preferable. USET SPF will also continue to remind FEMA that in developing its various guidance documents that it should never contradict or ignore its trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations.
For more information, please contact Brian Howard, USET SPF Senior Policy Analyst, at bhoward@usetinc.org.
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