News and Notes About Benefit-Cost Analysis

From this page, you can review Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA)-related updates, see the schedule for upcoming releases, and access current and past BCA Toolkit release notes.

Latest Updates and Announcements

FEMA Policy: Benefit-Cost Analysis Discount Rate and Streamlined Cost-Effectiveness for Hazard Mitigation Assistance and Public Assistance Programs

This policy memorandum officially adopts a 3.1% discount rate for a benefit-cost analysis required under FEMA’s HMA and PA programs. The memorandum also lists additional BCA streamlining approaches: an expansion of the BCA narrative for projects less than $1 million to all HMA programs and updates the guidance for when FEMA can provide direct BCA assistance.

Update to the Discount Rate Used in Benefit-Cost Analysis of Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) and Public Assistance (PA) Mitigation Projects

This policy aid provides more details about FEMA’s new discount rate approach, including an explanation the impact that a lower 3.1% discount rate has on an economic analysis and how users should expect to find it implemented in the BCA Toolkit.

Schedule of Upcoming Releases

There are no new releases scheduled at this time.

The current version of the BCA Toolkit, Version 6.0, was released in 2019.

Changes and updated features are implemented regularly. Many of the changes and hotfixes implemented are an outcome from questions and comments submitted to the BCA Helpline.

BCA Toolkit Release Notes

The release notes describe the improvements, updates, and fixes that have been made to the BCA Toolkit. The release notes are listed chronologically, are categorized by the purpose of the change to the add-in, and have the BCA Toolkit build number associated with that release.

Last updated