SBA and FEMA have independent authorities for providing disaster assistance. State governors’ requests for SBA’s assistance are directed to the SBA Administrator through SBA’s regional offices. Under the Small Business Act, the Administrator is authorized to make or guarantee loans to victims of sudden physical disaster. The loans are made to repair or replace damaged property. In fiscal 1994, SBA obligated about $4.2 billion for disaster assistance. Under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 and following), a state governor may request the President to declare that an “emergency” or “major disaster” exists in the state. The scope of authorized assistance for emergencies is smaller than that for major disasters. The act provides that requests for declarations (and therefore federal assistance) shall be based on a finding that the incident “is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and the affected local governments and that federal assistance is necessary.” FEMA gathers and analyzes information and recommends to the President whether or not federal assistance is warranted. In the event of a presidential declaration, FEMA directly supplies some assistance and coordinates the overall federal effort. The types of assistance provided include money (grants and loans), equipment, supplies, housing, and personnel. FEMA’s public assistance grants help state and local governments and eligible private nonprofit organizations to fund repairs to damaged public facilities and address health and safety threats. Individual assistance grants to individuals and families to help them recover from the effects of disaster-related damage include housing and unemployment assistance. In fiscal 1994, FEMA obligated about $5.4 billion for disaster assistance. Neither SBA’s nor FEMA’s disaster declaration policies and procedures differ with respect to whether the affected area is considered rural or urban. Both agencies employ a process of assessing postdisaster conditions and using a set of factors, or criteria, to determine whether or not to grant assistance. Neither agency’s factors include any measure of population density. (App. I shows the steps in each agency’s declaration process.) SBA’s declaration process and criteria are published in the Code of Federal Regulations. The criteria provide that assistance from SBA may be provided if, as a result of disaster-related damage to a county, at least 25 homes or businesses have sustained uninsured losses of at least 40 percent of their replacement value or at least three businesses have sustained uninsured losses of at least 40 percent of their replacement value and, as a direct result of the disaster, at least 25 percent of the workforce in the community would be unemployed for at least 90 days. To determine the extent of the damage, SBA, state, and local officials jointly assess conditions in the affected counties following a governor’s request. SBA’s policy is to suspend action on the requests it receives if the governor has requested a presidential declaration that includes individual assistance. SBA does not act on such requests until the President has made a decision on the governor’s request. In hearings before the 103rd Congress, the incoming SBA Administrator noted that all disaster declaration requests to SBA are handled in the same manner. Also, SBA’s Associate Administrator for Disaster Assistance stated that SBA treats all of the requests from states the same, whether the disaster area is rural or urban. The Stafford Act establishes the disaster declaration process. The act does not prescribe specific criteria to guide FEMA’s recommendation or the President’s decision. As a prerequisite to federal disaster assistance under the act, a governor must take “appropriate response action” and provide information on the nature and amount of state and local resources committed to alleviating the results of the disaster. (FEMA may conduct a preliminary damage assessment, along with state, local, and/or other federal officials, before the governor requests assistance.) The President then decides whether federal assistance is needed to supplement state and local resources. The Stafford Act does not identify criteria for evaluating governors’ requests. According to the Chief, Program Policy Branch, Response and Recovery Directorate, FEMA generally considers some or all of the following factors in making a recommendation to the President: The number of homes destroyed or sustaining major damage. The number of homes sustaining minor damage. The extent to which the damage is concentrated or dispersed. The estimated cost of repairing the damage. The demographics of the affected areas (e.g., income levels, unemployment, and concentrations of the elderly). The extent to which the damage is covered by insurance. The extent to which the disaster area is traumatized. The extent of disaster-related unemployment. The level of assistance available from other federal agencies (e.g., SBA’s home and business loans). The state and local governments’ capabilities for dealing with the disaster. The level of assistance available from voluntary organizations (e.g., the American Red Cross). The availability of rental housing. The extent of health and safety problems. The extent of damage to facilities providing essential services (e.g., medical, utilities, police, etc.). While these factors do not explicitly take into account the urban/rural status of an affected area, they include factors that could vary with measures of population density. For example, the number of homes destroyed or sustaining major damage might be expected to be larger in more densely populated areas than in less densely populated areas. According to the Branch Chief, these factors serve as guidelines for FEMA staff who evaluate disaster declaration requests. Staff are encouraged to apply the factors consistently, but there is no formula for applying them quantitatively. FEMA officials stated that FEMA relies most heavily on how the assessment of a state’s capability compares with the costs entailed by the disaster. However, they acknowledged that “capability” is not precisely defined and that determining a state’s capability is subjective. The flexibility and generally subjective nature of FEMA’s criteria have raised questions about the consistency and clarity of the disaster declaration process. FEMA’s Inspector General reported in 1994 that (1) neither a governor’s findings nor FEMA’s analysis of capability is supported by standard factual data or related to published criteria and (2) FEMA’s process does not always ensure equity in disaster decisions because the agency does not always review requests for declarations in the context of previous declarations. We previously reported that disclosing the process for evaluating requests would help state and local governments determine the circumstances that warrant federal assistance. Several attempts have been made to address these concerns, and FEMA is currently negotiating a partnership agreement with each state, designed in part to clarify the conditions under which FEMA’s assistance will be available. The disaster declaration process can be divided into two intervals: (1) the time between the disaster’s “incident date” and the gubernatorial request and (2) the time between the gubernatorial request and a declaration decision. The latter interval covers the period when federal agencies are actually processing disaster declaration requests. In addition, FEMA and SBA frequently help assess damages and/or advise state emergency personnel before a governor requests assistance. During calendar 1993 and 1994, FEMA received 120 gubernatorial requests for presidential declarations covering 2,157 counties. As shown in figure 1, the median number of days that elapsed during both intervals was greater for rural and very rural counties than for urban and very urban counties. During calendar 1993 and 1994, SBA received 73 requests covering 179 counties. Figure 2 shows that the number of days that elapsed during both intervals was generally greater for rural and very rural counties than for urban and very urban counties. Governors’ requests for SBA’s assistance may be made directly to SBA or may be included in a request for a presidential declaration. SBA’s policy is to suspend action on the latter type of requests until a presidential declaration decision is made. For the requests that were made directly to SBA during calendar 1993 and 1994 (covering 124 counties), the median number of days between the gubernatorial request and SBA’s decision was 7, or 34 days less than for requests that had been included in a request for a presidential declaration. For all requests made to FEMA and SBA, in addition to computing the medians, we also computed the mean number of days for each interval. The results showed the same general pattern: The mean times tended to be longer for rural and very rural counties. (See app. II for more details on the processing times for disaster declaration requests.) As noted above, neither FEMA’s nor SBA’s factors for assessing requests for disaster declarations and helping determine whether or not to grant assistance include any measure of population density. Therefore, while the data show a general pattern of smaller median and mean elapsed times as county population density increases, they should not be interpreted as demonstrating that population density determines the length of elapsed time from request to declaration. As shown in figure 3, a greater proportion of requests for very rural counties resulted in presidential disaster declarations than did requests for counties in the other categories. SBA, on the other hand, denied a greater proportion of requests for rural and very rural counties than for urban and very urban counties. Similar to the data on elapsed time, the data on the proportion of requests approved and denied should not be interpreted as demonstrating that population density determines the approval/denial decision. FEMA and SBA officials stated that many factors can affect the time that elapses during the declaration process. For example, according to the FEMA Branch Chief, it generally takes longer to travel to remote areas to assess damages. We reviewed (1) selected requests for disaster declarations by the President and SBA that were processed more quickly or more slowly than the median number of days between the incident date and the gubernatorial request and (2) additional selected requests for the time elapsed between the gubernatorial request and the declaration decision. The results are summarized below and detailed in appendix III. One factor affecting the length of time between a disaster incident and a gubernatorial request for a declaration was how quickly a preliminary damage assessment could be made.