Friend,

No one likes to think about disaster response… until a disaster happens. But the sad truth is that disasters, in some shape or form, are inevitable. And the investments we make today in preparing for tomorrow’s disasters will save lives.

Tragically, the Trump Administration has already cut billions of dollars from disaster preparedness. They’ve even considered eliminating FEMA. Trump’s acting administrator of FEMA has zero emergency management experience, and his predecessor told Congress that FEMA should not exist. 

It’s no surprise, then, that disaster response has been unacceptably slow under the Trump Administration. It took days for federal search and rescue teams to arrive in Texas after devastating floods earlier this year. Unstaffed phone lines led to 40,000 calls from survivors going unanswered. Things got so bad after tornadoes hit Missouri that a prominent Republican senator publicly criticized the slow pace of federal assistance.

Roughly 200 current and former FEMA employees have sounded the alarm, warning that President Trump has undermined the federal government’s ability to respond to, and prepare for, large-scale disasters. In response, the President fired the whistleblowers.

There’s a robust debate in this country about the size of government, but nearly all Americans believe that the federal government should quickly and effectively step up to help families rebuild their lives after floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires. I’ll fight to make sure that Congress continues to exercise its oversight powers and funds the critical work of FEMA.

— Jim