The U.S. Government Accountability Office on Thursday released a report saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency lacks transparency in how it administers $2.9 billion in preparedness grants.
FEMA oversees 13 grants for fiscal year 2026 designed to help nonfederal groups prepare for terrorism, disasters and major events like the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. The GAO said a lack of transparency and funding disruptions threaten the agency’s ability to direct money where it best reduces risk.
In 2025, the Department of Homeland Security terminated grants and paused funding, which delayed payments to recipients. A federal district court ordered FEMA to stop delaying disbursements in April 2025, according to the report. DHS also added conditions requiring grant recipients to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
While a federal court blocked the 2025 immigration conditions, DHS attached similar requirements to its 2026 awards. The GAO noted that lawsuits over these conditions remain ongoing as of November 2026.
The review found that FEMA did not accurately describe its criteria for evaluating applications for port and transit security grants. This omission could leave applicants without enough information to understand which projects might score highly, the report said. The agency also did not consistently award grants to the highest-scoring applications.
In addition, FEMA did not fully use recognized scientific practices to maintain its risk assessment models and failed to include cyber threats in its transit security model. The agency also did not adequately communicate changes to national priority areas before implementing them, according to the report.
The GAO recommended that FEMA fully describe its application criteria and ensure its risk models capture relevant threats. The report also advised FEMA to incorporate lessons learned before taking future grant actions.