Trump's plan guarantees more deaths and destruction.Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Daily Prospect Monday through Friday. [link removed]

[link removed]

**SEPTEMBER 29, 2025**

Click to read this email in your browser. [link removed]

I’ve always been intrigued by the weather. Living on Earth, though, means more than quiet snowfalls or strings of sunny beach days. The most dazzling and destructive weather phenomena—severe storms, hurricanes, and tornadoes—can wreak havoc and kill. But when nature spins around and spits on the best choreographed preparations humans can design, FEMA’s very existence—flaws and all—answers the “Who you gonna call?” question. Taking a wrecking ball to all that isn’t really a serious option. But that’s where we are. Here’s the 411 [link removed] on what state leaders are up against when Washington doesn’t have a clue.

**–Gabrielle Gurley, senior editor**

[link removed]

CARLOS KOSIENSKI/SIPA USA VIA AP

FEMA’s Years of Living Dangerously [link removed]

The Trump administration’s zeal to stamp out FEMA, a flawed but essential agency, has been interrupted by the mind-numbing display of bureaucratic micromanaging: the federal response to the Central Texas flash floods in July that killed 135 people, among them children vacationing in summer camps. “As sad as that is, unfortunately, that is typically what moves the needle in terms of disaster policy throughout history,” says Jeff Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. “It’s not the data forecasting what’s going to happen. It’s the lives lost when it does happen—and this happened in a red state.”

The requirement that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sign off on agency expenses above $100,000 [link removed] compromised FEMA disaster hotline [link removed] availability and search and rescue missions so severely that FEMA’s head of urban search and rescue resigned [link removed] in frustration.

None of those facts made it into an August DHS press release that offered an upbeat, wholly unsubstantiated perspective on the agency, declaring [link removed] that after 200 days, “FEMA is 100% faster in getting boots-on-the-ground to respond to disasters.” Nim Kidd, the head of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, claimed, “I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years, and I can say with confidence that this was the fastest and most effective federal support Texas has ever received.”

Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order that “empowers State, local, and individual preparedness and injects common sense into infrastructure prioritization and strategic investments through risk-informed decisions that make our infrastructure, communities, and economy resilient to global and dynamic threats and hazards.” An administration “review council” will consider what comes next for the emasculated agency, with a final report due in November.

But common sense isn’t so common. Only the federal government can come up with the billions of dollars and assets to backstop the 50 states, local governments, territories, and tribal lands in the direst catastrophes. In an era when storms and wildfires are more frequent, stronger, and more expensive to respond to and recover from, shifting more of that burden onto states and localities after a jumble of executive orders, layoffs, firings, and delaying or withholding funds displays an obsession with cost-cutting by any means necessary and no concern with the ability of states to deal with catastrophes.

Continue reading this story [link removed]

**ON OUR SITE**

Oracle has no history of creating compelling consumer-facing products. Its ability to run TikTok [link removed], the most addictive algorithm in social media, is questionable.

A new report on AI [link removed] offers a legislative road map for creating a competitive and secure cloud computing market.

[link removed]

Read more about the [link removed]

IDEAS, POLITICS, and POWER [link removed]

that shape the world around us at [link removed]

prospect.org [link removed]

[link removed]

**Support**

**The American Prospect**

We're a small, non-profit newsroom. Our independent reporting is supported by readers like you.

YOUR TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM prospect.org/donate

Copyright (c) 2025 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.**The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States**
You are receiving this newsletter because you have signed up for our service.
To opt out of American Prospect membership, donation or advertising messaging, click here [link removed].
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here [link removed].
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters, click here [link removed].

[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

Sent to: [email protected]

Unsubscribe [link removed]

The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States