Annie Mac Vest, director of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, told the House Appropriations and Budget Committee on the agency’s performance review that Oklahoma experienced multiple major disasters in the past year and that the agency has paid out substantial federal disaster assistance.

“Our mission is to help minimize the effects of disasters and emergencies upon the people of Oklahoma,” Vest said at the committee hearing. She told members the agency administered and distributed FEMA public assistance, supported local recovery over multiple years and managed both the state’s 9-1-1 program and large federal grant portfolios.

Vest told the committee that OEM staff had verified documentation and helped applicants obtain federal reimbursements and that the agency had “successfully paid out a hundred and 13,000,000 in FEMA public assistance dollars to applicants across Oklahoma since January of 20 24,” a figure she said is roughly triple the prior fiscal year’s payouts. She also said the agency had paid about $17,000,000 in 12.5% state-share payments from the state emergency fund and credited recent legislative appropriations for allowing the agency to catch up on previously backlogged state-share obligations.

To help communities bridge timing gaps while awaiting FEMA reimbursements, Vest said the legislature appropriated a $30,000,000 disaster assistance revolving fund in 2024 and OEM promulgated rules and an application process; at the time of the hearing she said the agency was working with three applicants. She described that fund as a loan program and said it is designed to be repaid as federal reimbursements arrive.

Vest described an ARPA State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program of roughly $25,000,000 intended to build emergency response and recovery capabilities, saying OEM received 67 eligible applications and expected to fund about 70% of them. She also said OEM restructured divisions, used surge consulting contracts for recovery work and plans to continue using contracted surge capacity instead of immediately filling many vacant FTEs.

On staffing and budgets, Vest said OEM’s FTE count was 62, including seven 9-1-1 staff and about 55 staff focused on emergency management. She described a decision to reduce filled personnel by about 15% compared with an earlier staffing baseline and to rely on contractors during surge periods. Vest said the agency was requesting a flat core state appropriation for FY 2025 and emphasized that OEM’s operations rely heavily on federal funding tied to disaster activity.

Committee members pressed Vest on operational lessons from the spring responses. When Representative Roberts asked why out‑of‑state teams were needed, Vest said teams from Florida provided recovery expertise—procurement, FEMA programmatic knowledge and case management—plus mobile command trailers that many impacted Oklahoma communities did not have. “The Florida teams actually provided more recovery support… and the other thing that Florida had that we did not were those mobile command trailers,” she said.

Vest closed by summarizing planned FY 2025 projects: build a state mobile command trailer; enhance GIS and public dashboards; continue ARPA implementation; complete next‑generation 9-1-1 work; and develop regional hazard mitigation plans and a new strategic plan to strengthen local, regional and state coordination.

Vest and committee members agreed to stay in touch as the budget process continued, and committee members indicated they would follow up on questions about the revolving fund rules and outstanding 12.5% state-share estimates.