Skip to main content
H.R. 5794 119th Congress House

FEMA Operations Continuity Act of 2025

Official title: To authorize the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to continue disaster relief, recovery, and mitigation operations funded through the D… Show full official titleShow less

Official title: To authorize the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to continue disaster relief, recovery, and mitigation operations funded through the Disaster Relief Fund in the event of a lapse in appropriations, and for other purposes.

Introduced: October 21, 2025 Introduced by: Wesley Bell Democratic · Missouri See on congress.gov
Emergency Management
Sign in to write a letter Sign in to watch
 Everywhere this bill has been 3 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Dec 1, 2025
Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.
Oct 21, 2025
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Oct 21, 2025
Introduced in House
 Ask about this bill AI · grounded in the bill text

Have a question about what this bill does? Ask in plain English; the answer is drawn from the bill's actual text and official record, and it'll tell you when something isn't in the text rather than guess.

AI answers can be imperfect; always confirm against the full bill text.

What's happening now December 1, 2025

Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.

 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

FEMA Operations Continuity Act of 2025

This bill authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to continue certain disaster relief, recovery, and mitigation operations during a lapse in appropriations (i.e., government shutdown).

Specifically, the bill authorizes FEMA to

  • continue all disaster relief, recovery, and mitigation operations funded through the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF);
  • obligate and disburse DRF balances for all existing and future disaster declarations, including individual and public assistance under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act; and
  • maintain personnel and contract support necessary to ensure uninterrupted processing of claims and payments.

The bill also (1) requires all unobligated balances in the DRF to remain available to FEMA for expenditure during a lapse in appropriations; and (2) prohibits the funds from being withheld, sequestered, or reprogrammed during a lapse in appropriations, except as necessary to comply with the Antideficiency Act.

Finally, the bill specifies that, for the purposes of the Antideficiency Act, the FEMA operations authorized by this bill must be considered essential to protect human life and property and are exempt from government shutdown restrictions.

 Bill text 1 version

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

 Committees of jurisdiction 2
 Lobbying activity 16

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

Bodies those filers lobbied

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

See all 16 filings →
 Cosponsors 4
All 4 Democratic 4
D
Elfreth, Sarah
Maryland · Jul 14, 2026
 D
Figures, Shomari
Alabama · Oct 28, 2025
 D
Fields, Cleo
Louisiana · Oct 21, 2025
 D
Moulton, Seth
Massachusetts · Oct 21, 2025
Cite this page click to expand
APA
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 5794: FEMA Operations Continuity Act of 2025. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5794/
MLA
"H.R. 5794: FEMA Operations Continuity Act of 2025." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5794/.
Bluebook (legal)
H.R. 5794, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5794/.
Markdown link
[H.R. 5794: FEMA Operations Continuity Act of 2025](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5794/)
Report a problem