The Disaster Relief Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-288) was passed into law by the then President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

as a

United States federal law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as va ...

that established the process of presidential disaster declarations. The bill was introduced by Senator Quentin Burdick on February 26, 1974. The bill passed 91-0 as amended on April 10, 1974 and the House agreed to conference report by a vote of 392–0 on May 15, 1974. It was to better handle the array of disasters that occur annually throughout the 50 states. At one point, more than one hundred federal agencies were involved in handling disasters and emergencies. The Act also helped give more fixed relief to disaster survivors.

Amendments

In 1979, President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

consolidated many of them into the new

Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

(FEMA) by Executive Order 12127. Hurricane Katrina Flooding

In November 1988, the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

amended the Act and renamed it the

Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act) is a 1988 United States federal law designed to bring an orderly and systematic means of federal natural disaster assistance for state and local governments in c ...

(Public Law 100-707). This act was further amended by the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000.

References

1974 in law 93rd United States Congress United States federal emergency management legislation {{US-fed-statute-stub