The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides essential funding and other resources to electric cooperatives after hurricanes, floods and other disasters. That support allows co-ops to restore service faster and make their infrastructure more resilient while limiting related costs for consumer-members.
Almost half of electric co-ops have received FEMA public assistance since 2020, highlighting its crucial role in affordably keeping the lights on. But FEMA and its public assistance program are far from perfect, with many co-ops facing delays, red tape and a lack of consistency in accessing funding.
On this episode of Along Those Lines, we’ll discuss why FEMA is so essential to co-ops and how a bipartisan bill in Congress—the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans Act—could make FEMA work better. We’ll also look at how NRECA is building support for the legislation through its Voices for Cooperative Power grassroots network and other channels.
Joining us for this month’s episode are NRECA CEO Jim Matheson, Florida Electric Cooperatives Association General Manager Mike Bjorklund and Vermont Electric Co-op CEO Rebecca Towne.
Listen to the episode below. To learn how you can take action and urge your member of Congress to support the FEMA Act of 2025, visit Voices for Cooperative Power.
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Find out more about NRECA’s podcast. Questions or suggestions? Email us at AlongThoseLines@nreca.coop.