By Alex Brown, Stateline.org
With hurricane and wildfire season well underway across much of the country, state and local emergency managers say they have little idea how much support the federal government will provide if disaster strikes. And the recent deadly floods in Texas have shown just how dire the need can be.
President Donald Trump has imposed severe cuts on the Federal Emergency Management Agency and denied some states’ requests for disaster recovery funds. FEMA also has failed to issue grants that many emergency managers rely on to fund their agencies — or to communicate its plans.
Wyoming’s Office of Homeland Security, which responds to disasters, relies on the feds for 92% of its money, said Director Lynn Budd. With that federal support in question, the state could face a precarious situation when the current grants expire at the end of September.
“If we don’t get this funding, what are we going to do?” Budd said. “You’re taking our capability away.”
Budd serves as president of the National Emergency Management Association, a nonprofit focused on public safety. She said state officials have been told by Trump that they’ve become too dependent on federal support.
Trump and officials in his administration have repeatedly talked of scaling back FEMA and pushing states to take the lead in disaster response. But in the wake of this month’s devastating flooding in Texas, administration officials have backed off Trump’s claims that he would eliminate the agency altogether.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson did not grant an interview request, but issued a statement calling on states to play a larger role in disaster response.
State and local officials say Trump has provided no clarity about which disasters will qualify for federal recovery funds. He has denied support for disasters that met the existing criteria. At the same time, FEMA has yet to issue federal grants that provide much of the funding for local emergency management agencies.
As local leaders in rural Saluda County, South Carolina, work to rebuild from last year’s Hurricane Helene, they say the recovery process has been slowed by Trump administration policies making it more difficult to access disaster aid. Worse, the county’s Emergency Management Division has no idea whether the feds will release the grant funding that makes up most of its budget.
“Are we going to see the help we need arriving?” said Josh Morton, director of Saluda County’s Emergency Management Division. “I don’t know. When we pick up the phone, is there gonna be anybody there to answer?”
Aside from the cuts to state funding, FEMA under Trump’s administration has lost about a quarter of its full-time staff, according to The New York Times. The agency also cut hundreds of contractors at call centers, The Times reported, resulting in thousands of missed calls in the days following the Texas flood.
Meanwhile, emergency managers say that Trump’s cuts to the National Weather Service could further impair their ability to respond to fast-moving disasters.
The feds pull back
Trump and his administration have frequently said states should take on more responsibility for responding to disasters.
Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in an April statement to Stateline that the federal government would provide support only for “truly catastrophic disasters,” adding that states should have “an appetite to own the problem.”
Emergency management experts say it would be inefficient for all 50 states to stockpile the resources, staff and recovery funding to handle disasters on their own. Having a national agency that can deploy where it’s needed is far less wasteful.
“There’s no reason for every state to have all the resources that FEMA has,” said Michael Coen, who served as chief of staff at FEMA during the Obama and Biden administrations.
He noted that FEMA also plays a key coordinating role with other federal agencies during disasters.
There’s no reason for every state to have all the resources that FEMA has. — Michael Coen, chief of staff at FEMA during the Obama and Biden administrations
Morton, the Saluda County official, echoed that concern. He also serves as first vice president with the International Association of Emergency Managers, a nonprofit representing professionals in the field.
“It would be impossible for every county in the U.S. to maintain an adequate disaster recovery fund on their own,” he said. “Right now, we have a disaster fund at the federal level, and that money is able to be moved around to where it’s needed in the moment. That really is the best bang for the buck for the American people.”
But that federal support is no longer a sure thing. Morton said recovery funds for Hurricane Helene — which walloped states from Florida to North Carolina — have been slower to materialize than for previous disasters. FEMA officials have required more paperwork, he said, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s insistence that she personally approve any expenditure over $100,000 has also slowed the process.
Disaster declarations
In other parts of the country, state officials have petitioned Trump for disaster declarations, only to be rejected altogether. Washington state’s request for disaster aid following storms last November that caused at least $34 million in damages met all the “very clear criteria to qualify,” said Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson, but was denied by FEMA.
While Trump administration officials have proposed limiting the events that qualify for federal relief, they have yet to issue new criteria. State leaders say they have gotten no clarity from the feds about whether they can count on support.
“We really need some communication on what to expect,” said Budd, the Wyoming official. “If we know there’s no federal funding coming, that would be an awful situation, but at least we can plan for that.”
Some experts say states should prepare for disaster relief to be approved along partisan lines.
“We just have to be honest that this White House is going to spend more resources, time and effort on people who live in red states than in blue states,” said Juliette Kayyem, faculty chair of the Homeland Security Project at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a former Obama administration official.
“It’s a hard thing for me to admit, and I don’t know how to solve it, but if you look at his reaction to [the Los Angeles wildfires in] California as compared to Texas, it’s very clear.”
Since February, Trump has denied six of the 10 major-disaster requests he has received from Democratic governors, according to an analysis from Seattle National Public Radio affiliate KUOW. He has approved 14 of 15 requests he has received from Republican governors during that same period.
Meanwhile, FEMA has yet to release the preparedness grants that many state and local governments depend on to fund their emergency management agencies and conduct projects to prepare for disasters. Those grants were set to be issued in May under a spending bill passed by Congress.
Coen, the former FEMA official, noted that the Texas Division of Emergency Management received nearly $20 million in federal funding last year to support day-to-day operations.
“Texas hasn’t been able to apply for that grant this year,” he said. “If they never get that grant, are they going to have to lay off staff or cancel contracts?”
FEMA has also revoked another set of grants, totaling $3.6 billion, that was intended to help communities prepare their infrastructure to withstand disasters.
Weather agency cuts
Amid the uncertainty at FEMA, emergency managers are also alarmed by Trump’s cuts to the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA has lost nearly 2,000 employees, The New York Times reported, 600 of whom worked for the weather service.
The cuts have left many forecasting offices understaffed, with some no longer able to operate overnight.
“The National Weather Service plays as big of a role in protecting lives as anyone else in government,” said Morton, the Saluda County official. “It would be very hard for emergency managers to do our jobs effectively without the National Weather Service. But if these cuts keep coming, you’re going to start to see deficiencies.”
Budd, the Wyoming official, said the weather agency is crucial during wildfires.
“That’s how we know when it’s time to alert our communities or evacuate an area,” she said. “You can put firefighters’ lives on the line very quickly if they don’t have notification that those winds are changing.”
She added that Trump’s cuts to the U.S. Forest Service and other land management agencies have added another layer of concern as wildfires begin cropping up throughout the West. With the loss of federal support, Budd said officials are likely to become increasingly reliant on state-to-state resource-sharing compacts that allow them to call on one another during emergency situations.
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