Comité Diálogo Ambiental v. FEMA

This technical data addendum, authored by expert witness Professor Nadia B. Ahmad, J.D., LL.M., presents an empirical critique of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disaster recovery programmatic framework. Analyzing five core federal datasets from 2000 to 2025, the study uncovers systemic geographic and socioeconomic disparities, including a national 3.99:1 funding imbalance prioritizing corporate contractors over direct individual household assistance, alongside a 38 percent grant penalty for completely rural communities. Crucially, the research exposes a profound data void within FEMA's National Risk Index, which contains zero usable hazard risk or community resilience data for any of Puerto Rico's 78 local municipios. This comprehensive addendum serves as the evidentiary bedrock for our amicus curiae brief in Comité Diálogo Ambiental v. FEMA, illustrating how top-down administrative actions shut out public participation and institutionalize vulnerabilities in marginalized frontline communities.