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FEMA Tribal Affairs

Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) Tribal Affairs is within the Intergovernmental Affairs Division and is the designated lead for tribal relations and consultation at FEMA.  Intergovernmental Affairs serves as the main point of contact between the Administrator and tribal leaders across the country, working with our intergovernmental partners across the Agency to coordinate engagement of elected officials, or their designees. The Tribal Affairs and Intergovernmental Affairs team continue to work to improve our relationship with all 566 Federally-recognized tribal governments.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.  Tribal governments are essential partners in building resilient communities.

The U.S. Government has a unique government-to-government relationship with Federally-recognized tribal governments based on the Constitution of the United States, treaties, statutes, executive orders, and judicial decisions.  This relationship was reaffirmed by FEMA Administrator Fugate when he signed the new FEMA Tribal Policy on June 29, 2010.  FEMA’s current authorities under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq. (Stafford Act), however, severely limit the agency’s ability to build the necessary relationships with our tribal government partners to support our tribal communities, members and first responders.

Tribal Affairs and Presidential Directives

FEMA abides by and supports the directive that Federal agencies work with tribal governments in a government-to-government relationship.  The directive details that Federal agencies must develop a detailed plan of action that the agency will take to implement the policies and directives of Executive Order 13175, Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments. In short, our agency is taking steps to ensure the implementation and enforcement of the provisions of the FEMA Tribal Policy and will engage tribes in policy and program developments through tribal consultation.

Under current law, American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal governments do not have authority to directly request Stafford Act emergency or disaster declarations, but are required to seek assistance under Presidential declarations for the states in which they are located. Consistent with our strong government-to-government relationship, FEMA is committed to supporting legislative efforts, such as S. 2283 and Section 210 of H.R. 2903 that will amend the Stafford Act to enable Federally-recognized tribal governments to make direct requests for a Federal emergency or disaster declaration by the President of the United States.  FEMA has been and will continue to actively work with Indian Country and Congress to support changes that will facilitate response and recovery efforts in tribal communities nationwide.

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Last Updated: 
09/05/2012 - 13:33
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