PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Congressional Research Service
No official summary is available in the imported record yet.
People & committees
Rep. Carter, Troy A. [D-LA-2] · D–LA
Legislative record
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Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
Source last updated: Oct 5, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2026-09-24 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
This bill would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to send Congress a workforce improvement plan within one year after enactment and at least every three years afterward. It would also require the Comptroller General to review whether the plans meet the bill’s requirements. The bill would not authorize additional funding to carry out these requirements.
The term Agency means the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and not less frequently than once every 3 years thereafter, the Administrator shall develop and submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a human capital operating plan to shape and improve the workforce of the Agency.
the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a report that— (1) analyzes whether the plan meets the requirements of this Act;
No additional funds are authorized to be appropriated for the purpose of carrying out this Act.
The proposed law would be called the Federal Emergency Mobilization Accountability (FEMA) Workforce Planning Act.
This Act may be cited as the Federal Emergency Mobilization Accountability (FEMA) Workforce Planning Act.
FEMA’s Administrator would develop the plans and submit them to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Plans would follow federal workforce best practices outlined by the Office of Personnel Management’s Director, the Comptroller General, and other relevant sources.
The term Administrator means the Administrator of the Agency.
the Administrator shall develop and submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a human capital operating plan to shape and improve the workforce of the Agency.
The Administrator shall develop the plan required under subsection (b) in accordance with best practices outlined by the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, the Comptroller General of the United States, and other sources relevant to the Federal workforce.
Each plan would include ways to measure progress on staffing shortages, skills shortages in essential jobs, and workforce training. Where applicable, it would report progress since the previous plan. It would also explain how progress is monitored, why goals were or were not met, barriers encountered, and changes to the measures used.
(1) performance measures to monitor and evaluate progress towards the human capital goals of the Agency, including filling staffing gaps, closing skills gaps in mission critical occupations, and implementing workforce training and, if applicable, progress towards meeting those goals since the date of submission of the most recent plan under subsection (b), including— (A) a process to monitor and evaluate progress toward those goals; (B) a discussion of why the Agency has or has not met those goals, including a description of specific barriers; and (C) a discussion of the addition or deletion of any specific performance measures;
Plans would describe employee types, including the legal authorities used to hire them and their workforce groups, called cadres. They would analyze projected implementation costs and include strategies intended to reduce overhead, improve resource use, and avoid unnecessary spending.
(2) details of the types of employees of the Agency, including by hiring authority and cadre; (3) a comprehensive analysis of the projected costs associated with implementing the plan; (4) strategies and practices designed to increase cost-efficiency within the workforce operations of the Agency, including reducing overhead costs, improving resource utilization, and avoiding unnecessary expenditures;
FEMA would explain how it set its overall staffing goals and assess workforce gaps. The assessment would compare needed skills and staffing targets for the next three years with current skills and employee counts, broken down by workforce group, region, and office. It would also examine expected employee departures, known reasons for departures, and current and projected shortages by employee category.
(5) a detailed analysis of how the Agency determined the current overall staffing goals of the Agency;
(6) an analysis of the current workforce of the Agency and possible gaps in the current staffing structure of the Agency needed to fulfill the mission of the Agency, including an assessment of— (A) the critical and emerging skills that will be needed in the workforce of the Agency to support the mission and responsibilities of, and effectively manage, the Agency during the 3-year period following the date of the submission of the plan, including target staffing numbers by cadre, region, and office; (B) the skills of the workforce of the Agency, including numbers of employees by cadre, region, and office on the date of submission of the plan;
(C) projected trends in the workforce of the Agency based on expected losses due to retirement and other attrition, including any known data for the causes of attrition; and (D) the staffing levels of each category of employee of the Agency, including shortages in the workforce of the Agency and in the projected workforce of the Agency that should be addressed to ensure that the Agency has continued access to the critical and emerging skills described in subparagraph (A);
Plans would recommend how to address skills gaps, with recruitment and retention goals for workforce groups and essential jobs, an explanation of the analysis behind those goals, and strategies to fill specific groups’ gaps. They would also include any necessary legislative proposals to improve recruitment and retention.
(7) a plan of action with specific recommendations for developing and reshaping the workforce of the Agency to address the gaps in critical and emerging skills described in paragraph (6)(A), including— (A) specific recruitment and retention goals by cadre and mission critical occupations, including the analysis that the Agency uses to produce those numbers;
(C) specific strategies for recruiting and retaining individuals needed to address workforce gaps within specific cadres;
(F) any necessary legislative proposals to improve recruitment and retention;
Plans would include strategies to develop, train, deploy, motivate, and retain FEMA’s workforce, along with the FEMA and Department of Homeland Security program objectives those strategies aim to achieve.
The term Department means the Department of Homeland Security.
(B) specific strategies for developing, training, deploying, motivating, and retaining the workforce of the Agency and the ability of the workforce of the Agency to fulfill the mission and responsibilities of the Agency, including the program objectives of the Department and the Agency to be achieved through such strategies;
Plans would address development, training, and coordinated rapid deployment of the Surge Capacity Force, a force defined by reference to an existing law. They would report how many members work outside FEMA and describe those members’ qualifications or credentials and training.
The term Surge Capacity Force means the Surge Capacity Force described in section 624 of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (6 U.S.C. 711).
(D) specific strategies for the development, training, and coordinated and rapid deployment of the Surge Capacity Force;
(A) details the number of employees not employed by the Agency serving in the Surge Capacity Force and the qualifications or credentials and training of such individuals;
Plans would include strategies to identify, address, prevent, and lessen discriminatory actions or decisions based on political affiliation.
(E) specific strategies for identifying, addressing, preventing, and mitigating discriminatory actions or decisions based on political affiliation;
Plans would include annual data on FEMA workforce deployments following presidential major-disaster or emergency declarations under the specified Stafford Act provisions during the three years before each plan’s submission.
(B) includes information on annual data relating to the deployment of the workforce of the Agency following major disasters or emergencies declared by the President under section 401 or 501, respectively, of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170, 5191) during the 3-year period preceding the date of the submission of the plan;
Plans would report average length of service and employee departures, broken down by departure type, hiring authority, office, region, and workforce group. They would discuss known reasons for higher departure rates among particular employee types or organizational groups and strategies to address those rates.
(C) details— (i) average tenure and attrition data, categorized by type of attrition, for— (I) types of Agency employees by hiring authority; and (II) specific offices, regions, and cadres of the Agency; and (ii) any known reasons why some types of Agency employees or specific offices, regions, or cadres of the Agency may have higher levels of attrition and strategies to address those higher levels of attrition;
Plans would describe FEMA’s efforts to prevent and respond to discrimination and harassment, reported cases, and their outcomes. They would also report the time from confirming a hiring need to an applicant accepting an offer and to the employee starting work.
(D) details— (i) efforts of the Agency to help prevent and respond to discrimination and harassment; and (ii) information on reported cases of discrimination and harassment within the Agency and the outcomes of those cases;
(E) describes, with respect to hiring information of the Agency, the time between the date on which the Agency validates a need to hire a new employee for a position and— (i) the acceptance of an offer of employment for the position by an applicant; and (ii) the start date of the employee at the Agency for the position.
Within 180 days after a plan is submitted, the Comptroller General would report to the same two congressional committees on whether it meets the bill’s requirements and recommend any changes needed for later plans to comply.
(e) Report Not later than 180 days after the date of the submission of the plan required under subsection (b), the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a report that— (1) analyzes whether the plan meets the requirements of this Act; and (2) includes necessary recommendations to ensure subsequent plans meet the requirements of this Act.
The bill would provide no additional authorization for Congress to fund its implementation. This provision does not state an implementation cost or itself provide funding.
(f) No new funds No additional funds are authorized to be appropriated for the purpose of carrying out this Act.
The supplied official-actions snapshot, updated October 5, 2026, records introduction in the House and referral to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on September 24, 2026.
Source snapshot updated 2026-10-05T21:05:21Z. 2026-09-24: Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. 2026-09-24: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2026-09-24. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or policy rider was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish the contents of other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for particular recipients or places was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version; member requests, disclosures, committee reports, and conference materials were not supplied.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
None identified in the reviewed text
No materially narrow carve-out, special exemption, or preferential treatment was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Oct 5, 2026. How PlainBill uses AI