Maryland county officials are taking their frustrations straight to Washington this week as Congress weighs major changes to federal disaster aid. The fight is not theoretical for them. Western counties still cleaning up from last spring’s floods are rebuilding without federal help after a request for disaster assistance was rejected last year.
Congress Sets A Hearing On FEMA Reforms
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has set a full committee hearing for 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday to dig into how federal disaster assistance works and how it might change, according to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Lawmakers are slated to examine H.R. 4669, the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans Act, alongside recommendations from the President’s FEMA Review Council, as described in the bill text on Congress.gov.
Counties Push A Local-First Agenda
Trying to get out ahead of whatever Congress does, the National Association of Counties has organized a county leadership fly-in and created an Intergovernmental Disaster Reform Task Force to push for faster, more predictable aid and better coordination between federal and local officials, according to NACo. Maryland county leaders joined that effort, and the MACo blog has listed witnesses expected to testify, including former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate and other emergency-management officials, at the Transportation Committee session, according to Conduit Street.
Western Maryland Still Rebuilding Without Federal Aid
For Allegany and Garrett counties, the policy debate is playing out in very real repair bills. FEMA denied Maryland’s initial request for a major disaster declaration after May’s floods, and the state’s appeal was turned down in October 2025. That left the two western counties to continue recovery without federal Public Assistance, as reported by Garrett News. Local officials say the decision pushed counties to raid state and local reserves to fix damaged roads, schools and utilities.
State Lawmakers Move To Shore Up Funding
In Annapolis, lawmakers have been trying to cushion counties from the whiplash of uncertain federal help. This spring, the General Assembly advanced measures to review how emergency management is funded and to give the state more flexibility to move money into the State Disaster Recovery Fund. MACo tracked and supported bills that would direct the University System of Maryland to study state emergency-management funding and that would make it easier to transfer dollars into the SDRF, according to Conduit Street.
What The FEMA Review Council Proposed
The President’s FEMA Review Council, whose work is now on the table in the House, released a report in May suggesting higher thresholds for federal disaster declarations, a smaller routine role for the federal government, and a bigger share of responsibility for states. County officials worry changes like that could make it tougher to unlock federal help when they need it most, according to reporting and analysis from the Washington Post and the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Why Counties Say The Stakes Are High
Local leaders warn that if Congress raises declaration thresholds and layers on new administrative hoops, small and rural communities could end up carrying much more of the immediate cost of disaster recovery, and residents could wait longer for help. Gov. Wes Moore called the denial of federal aid for Western Maryland “deeply frustrating,” and county officials say that kind of unpredictability strains budgets that are already stretched thin, according to local coverage from Garrett News.
With the Transportation Committee’s hearing set for Wednesday, county leaders and state lawmakers will be watching closely to see whether Congress embraces the Review Council’s framework, moves ahead with the House bill, or rewrites pieces of both to better protect local capacity. County officials say they will keep pressing for clearer timelines for federal assistance and steadier state funding so communities are not left trying to rebuild on their own.
