“Sometimes Congress responds very quickly to a disaster, sometimes it doesn’t, and you don’t know what else is happening in the political cycle that will influence decision-making,” said Andy Winkler, chair of the Policy Center’s Bipartisan Task Force on Disaster Relief Reform . “Any kind of delay or uncertainty about what resources are available could lead to delays in recovery.”

FEMA has “reached its limits” since 2017, when hurricanes Maria, Harvey and Irma caused massive damage, said Winkler. Things are still going strong: In August, FEMA announced that it would move into “immediate needs funding” mode, meaning life-saving emergency response efforts will take priority over longer-term recovery projects. Meanwhile, several states are awaiting recovery aid for disasters that occurred earlier this year or even last year, such as the devastating fires on Maui and the collapse of a bridge in Baltimore. Other federal disaster recovery programs that are not under FEMA’s purview and involve long-term recovery, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s long-term block grant program known as CDBG-DR, also received no new funding this year.

Winkler noted that FEMA’s strain may also be due to changing perceptions of the agency’s role whenever there is a need for relief and disaster recovery, citing the recent increase in the number of federal disaster declarations triggering states of emergency Financing process. “The mission is expanding, and at the same time you’re seeing a really severe workforce shortage at FEMA. So we ask them to do more, we expect more, but at the same time we don’t necessarily give them the tools and resources to be able to do that well,” Winkler said.