Under section 403 of the Stafford Act, FEMA may provide disaster assistance, but it is discretionary. Under 44 C.F.R. § 13.43, when an applicant fails to comply with a term of an award, FEMA may take an enforcement action. The PW required the Applicant to make reasonable efforts to recover funds from the owners of the MFD as a condition of participating in the STEP Program. However, the Applicant did not make any attempt to collect the funds and as such, FEMA employed its authority to deobligate the funding.

The Applicant made no effort to recover funds from the MFD owners despite an obligation to do so. Accordingly, when the Applicant failed to comply with the terms of the award, FEMA properly deobligated the funds. Therefore, the appeal is denied.

Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power (STEP) Pilot Program. Stafford Act § 403, 42 U.S.C. § 5172(a)(1)(A). 44 C.F.R. § 13.43. Town of Trophy Club, FEMA-4223-DR-TX, at 2 (Sept. 13, 2019); City of San Bruno v. FEMA, 181 F. Supp. 1010, 1015-16 (N.D. Cal. 2001).