President Donald Trump’s administration continues to suggest the Federal Emergency Management Agency could be coming to an end, with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reiterating to lawmakers that the president would like to abolish FEMA.
Trump discussed eliminating FEMA in the wake of recent natural disasters in California and North Carolina.
“I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away,” Trump said while touring flood damage in North Carolina in January, before continuing on to Los Angeles, which was devested by wildfires, where he said “I say you don’t need FEMA, you need a good state government.”
Noem told lawmakers during a May 6 hearing that the president believes the federal disaster relief agency has “failed.”
The top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, questioned Trump’s plan for the embattled agency after his budget proposed to cut $644 million in FEMA grants.
“Federal disaster relief should be readily available across the United States, regardless of where you live,” DeLauro said. “Natural disasters happen everywhere.”
DeLauro argued that states couldn’t handle disasters on their own. But Noem said Trump proposed to provide states with federal grants rather than the bureaucracy.
“He believes that FEMA and its response in many, many circumstances has failed the American people, and that FEMA as it exists today should be eliminated,” Noem said.
DeLauro asked for evidence of FEMA’s failure. Noem said the agency still has claims open from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and from fire claims a decade ago.
“What the president has said is he’s sick and tired of federal agencies that pick and choose who wins and who loses,” Noem said.
Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., said his state has been hit with many hurricanes and “frustration levels are off the chart” because FEMA payments lag for years while cities and states pay interest on disaster costs.
“It’s not that FEMA shows up and everything’s OK,” Rutherford said. “It’s quite the contrary, actually.”
Trump signed an executive order Jan. 24 creating a review council to look at FEMA and suggest potential changes, including “whether FEMA can serve its functions as a support agency, providing supplemental Federal assistance” to states instead of directly controlling disaster relief.
The agency has been under strain amid the wave of federal layoffs and buyouts pushed by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. At least 2,000 out of 6,100 full-time FEMA employees have left or plan to leave, a former employee told USA TODAY.
Trump criticized FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene, a devastating storm that killed 248 people and inflicted $78.7 billion in damage from Florida to North Carolina, where catastrophic flooding led to 105 deaths. The agency also has been grappling with the aftermath of the Los Angeles wildfire, which caused an estimated $250 billion to $275 billion in damage.
FEMA is running low on disaster relief funding as the Atlantic hurricane season approaches.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump wants to abolish FEMA, Kristi Noem tells lawmakers
