Every so often, a single disaster becomes a window into the future of a program. For FEMA’s Public Assistance (PA) Program, that window is opening in Indiana.
On September 25, 2026, just over a month after the major disaster declaration for the storms and flooding that began August 11, FEMA officially launched the Streamlined Process to Ensure Efficient Delivery, known as SPEED PA, for Indiana’s recovery under DR-4933. The goal is straightforward and impactful. Help state and local governments, along with certain private nonprofits, begin contracting and accelerate recovery.
For state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) leaders everywhere, the details deserve close attention.
Why This Effort Matters
Recovery is a race against time. After a disaster, communities need timely support to restore essential services and begin rebuilding. Delays in funding and restoring governmental services can prolong the disruption for residents and businesses further exacerbating the effects of the disaster.
Communities need to hire contractors, secure materials, and restore essential services while residents and businesses wait to see progress. Anything that shortens the distance between damage and funded work can change the trajectory of a recovery and how it is perceived by the public.
SPEED PA matters for several reasons. It seeks to move projects toward approval more quickly by empowering applicants, accelerating project formulation, allowing eligible cost estimates to establish project costs, and expanding payment options. It places state and local governments firmly in the lead, consistent with the direction FEMA signaled in its Applicant-Managed Public Assistance guidance. And it gives the entire emergency management community a live example to watch. When a new approach is tested in one state, other states, territories, and tribes naturally ask whether it will reach them next.
FEMA’s federal coordinating officer for Indiana, Darrin Ricketts, described the effort as part of a commitment to recovery that is fast, efficient, and state-led, with roadblocks and red tape removed wherever possible.
How Indiana Differs From Typical PA Delivery
In a typical delivery, applicants often assemble detailed cost documentation, move through project formulation and review in sequence, and wait for reimbursement after costs have been incurred. The process is thorough, and it can also be slow.
FEMA describes SPEED PA as providing additional ways to submit information and quickly receive funding. It changes the recovery process in three important ways, as stated in the FEMA press release1:
- Accepting cost estimates instead of actual project costs: This allows Public Assistance applicants to use FEMA-validated or other types of permissible estimates to be used to establish the cost of the project.
- Accelerating project worksheets: FEMA can advance eligible projects through formulation, review and obligation more efficiently by moving complete project development information to the front of the Public Assistance process.
- Advancing payment for eligible applicants: Once a project is approved and funds are available, recipients may use reimbursement, advance payments or working capital advances to move their recovery projects forward.
Two Moves, One Direction
Read together, Applicant-Managed Public Assistance and SPEED PA tell a consistent story. Both put more responsibility, and more authority, in the hands of state and local governments. Both reward applicants who arrive with their information organized and their decisions made. And both suggest that FEMA is strategically rethinking how much hands-on support each disaster requires.
Together, these efforts point toward a PA model in which preparation determines pace. Communities that understand their options before a declaration will be able to take full advantage of flexibilities like these.
FEMA announced these processes for Indiana. Whether, and in what form, they will extend to future declared disasters remains to be seen.
Five Steps to Take Now
The central lesson is clear. Faster funding will depend on earlier decisions, stronger documentation, and greater applicant readiness.
- Understand your estimating options. Learn what FEMA-validated and other permissible estimates look like and ask early how estimated costs will be reconciled as work progresses.
- Build documentation before you need it. Scopes of work, damage photos, itemized costs, procurement records, and hazard mitigation proposals should be ready to upload the moment projects are formulated.
- Plan your cash flow. Applicants and recipients should understand the reimbursement, advance payment, and working capital advance options, along with what each requires.
- Stay close to your partners. Applicants should talk with their recipient and FEMA about which flexibilities apply, and recipients should be ready to guide and support the applicants they serve.
- Line up expert support. Identify experienced partners who can scale quickly to help with damage inventories, estimates, project formulation, and closeout.
Those following the Indiana declaration can find official updates at FEMA’s website and the State’s.
How IEM Can Help
For more than 41 years, IEM has helped communities prepare for, respond to, mitigate against, and recover from disasters of every scale. Our recovery team knows the PA Program from every angle, including the policy, the systems, and the practical realities of moving projects from damage to funded work. We are following the Indiana effort closely, and we are ready to help our clients anticipate what comes next.
The future of recovery may move faster, but only for communities prepared to move with it. Contact IEM’s Recovery team to strengthen your readiness before the next declaration.