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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 compromised FEMA disaster hotline availability and search and rescue missions so severely that FEMA’s head of urban search and rescue resigned 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 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.
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