Washington In the years to come, governors and state legislators may need to step up their efforts to respond to and recover from natural disasters as President Donald Trump seeks to transfer responsibility from the federal government to the states.
Following his proposal last week to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency entirely, Trump has now appointed a 20-member committee by executive order to examine the agency and suggest changes to its operations.
As the process begins, it will also be unclear what will happen to the National Flood Insurance Program, which is run by FEMA and is used by over 4.7 million homeowners.
Trump stated in North Carolina on Friday, “To be honest, I don’t think FEMA is good.” When a situation like this arises, I believe you want to use your state to solve it rather than wasting time calling FEMA, regardless of whether the governor is a Democrat or a Republican.
Trump stated that he intended to suggest that FEMA be abolished and that we pay the state directly or in proportion.
However, Trump stated that issue should be fixed by the state. It would have been much better if the state had taken this action right away.
According to Trump’s executive order, Americans should receive a prompt, efficient, and unbiased response to emergencies and recovery from them.
The executive order states that in order to advance the national interest and enable national resilience, FEMA must undergo a comprehensive evaluation by professionals with extensive expertise in efficient disaster response and recovery. These professionals will then recommend enhancements or structural changes to the president.
The 20-member group will be co-chaired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. When asked when Trump will name the additional members, the White House did not answer.
Later this year, a report comparing FEMA’s response to different natural disasters with the state’s response to the catastrophe is expected to be released by the council. Before then-President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order creating FEMA in 1979, the report is also anticipated to cover how states handled natural catastrophes.
During a news conference on Monday, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson stated that he is in favor of examining FEMA’s operations, but he refrained from proposing the agency’s elimination.
According to Johnson, “I have found that local employees, those who work for FEMA, typically perform fairly well.” However, the way a disaster is managed can frequently be influenced by the top leadership.
Johnson said that since Trump wants to make the government more effective and efficient and Republican lawmakers are looking for ways to reduce the size and scope of government, no department or agency should be deemed off-limits to assessment.
According to Johnson, FEMA has been a partner, but they could likely be a better one.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican, stated on Monday that Trump’s preferred course of action would be to let states to manage their own emergency response and receive reimbursement from the federal government.
Graham told reporters in Columbia, South Carolina, that FEMA can be frustrating at times. My goal is to facilitate disaster assistance efforts for people.
Graham anticipates that the study’s findings will fall somewhere in the center, reducing some of the bureaucratic red tape without entirely abolishing the federal agency.
“Count me in if you want to look at FEMA and reshape it to make it more effective,” Graham added.
According to a House GOP summary, Congress allocated $25.3 billion for FEMA in the most recent full-year spending package, which was $267.7 million less than then-President Joe Biden’s budget proposal and $72.9 million less than the agency’s prior funding level.
Congress approved an emergency spending plan in late December that included an additional $29 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund.
Devon Cruz, the national press secretary for the Democratic Governors Association, said in a statement that the GOP was spreading harmful notions.
“Democratic governors have been a leading example of putting politics aside and helping families rebuild and recover when natural disasters hit,” Cruz wrote. Congressional Republicans and Donald Trump are now openly politicizing disaster assistance and putting out risky proposals that will make it more difficult to assist families in rebuilding their towns, homes, and schools. This is only the most recent illustration of the widening gap between Democratic governors who are consistently achieving tangible outcomes in their states and the dysfunction led by Republicans in Washington, D.C.
Regarding the possible effects of the changes on states and their budgets, the National Governors Association chose not to comment. Requests for response from the Republican Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures were not answered.
Although it excludes the emergency funds for COVID-19, FEMA provides an interactive state-by-state summary of federal spending on natural disaster response and recovery since 2017.
In addition to the amount spent by the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Transportation, the webpage displays the amount spent by FEMA to assist each state or territory in its recovery from disasters.
The website reveals that the departments and agencies have spent over $250 billion on the natural catastrophes that are included in the statistics, with a large portion of that spending going to red states that supported Trump in the presidential election and have a large number of Republican representatives in Congress.
For instance, Louisiana, the home state of Speaker Johnson, has received $19.3 billion in money, of which $11.5 billion comes from FEMA.
FEMA is responsible for $275.6 million of the roughly $400 million that the federal government has allotted to South Dakota, the home state of Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
FEMA provided $19 billion of the $29.5 billion in federal disaster relief that was allotted to Florida, which has been hardest hit by a number of hurricanes and tropical storms in the years covered.
Jessica Holdman, a senior reporter for the South Carolina Daily Gazette, contributed to this article.
