The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (The Stafford Act, P.L. 93-288) contains discretion for the President to adjust cost-shares for the Public Assistance (PA) program, Sections 406 and 407 of the act, that provides assistance to states, local governments and non-profit organizations for debris removal and rebuilding of the public and non-profit infrastructure. The language of the Stafford Act defining cost-shares for the repair, restoration, and replacement of damaged facilities provides that the federal share "shall be not less than 75 percent." These provisions have been in effect for over 20 years. While the authority to adjust the cost-share is long standing, the history of FEMA's administrative adjustments and Congress' legislative actions in this area, are of a more recent vintage. In all, there have been 222 cost-share adjustments of varying sizes and lengths of time. In 1998 FEMA promulgated, in regulation, a more consistent and open approach to cost-share adjustments. The overwhelming majority of these actions have been based on that regulatory authority and carried out by the executive branch through administrative actions. However, since 1997, and particularly in the wake of the difficult issues caused by the Gulf Coast storms of 2005, Congress has begun to exercise its authority to adjust cost-shares. The recent trend toward legislative cost-share waivers suggests that Congress may have an interest in continuing to influence the federal/state relationship in providing resources to respond to disaster situations. The cost-share regulation cites per capita damage amounts that could qualify a state for cost-share reductions. The per capita amounts are updated on an annual basis. With the adjustment process in regulation, and with larger disasters more frequent in succeeding years, the cost-share waivers have also become more common. Certainly the interest in achieving such a reduction for the state and local share has grown with the awareness of the cost-share adjustments during large disaster events such as Hurricane Katrina. Beyond actions by the executive branch, Congress has adjusted cost-shares through legislation when a state or states may not, or have yet to meet, the per capita threshold. FEMA and the Clinton administration adjusted the cost-shares for some states affected by the 1993 Mississippi River flooding that had not met the per capita policy amount. In 2007, Congress adjusted the cost-shares following the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005 for states that did not meet the identified threshold and also waived cost-shares for programs other than the PA program. Most recently, in P.L. 111-32, Congress again adjusted the state cost-shares for the two states most impacted by Hurricane Ike in 2008. The legislation also waived the cost-share for two other states, separate from the hurricane area, with major disaster declarations that did not meet the qualifying threshold. Under the Insular Areas Act, a different threshold is implemented for U.S. territories that provides a more generous cost-share for smaller disaster events in several of the territories. These cost- share waivers have been frequently applied. Cost-share waivers can be a great help to a state and its communities seeking to recover from a disaster event and reeling from the economic problems caused by the disaster. But such actions also reduce the supplemental nature of Stafford Act funding through the increase of the federal share. How such cost-share waivers are administered is an issue that FEMA has addressed through regulation and Congress has addressed through legislation. This report will be revised as warranted by events.