President Donald Trump has seemingly softened his stance on phasing out the Federal Emergency Management Agency completely, with the administration now planning on using it to highlight local and state leaders' roles in disaster response – as they’ve done in Texas.
Despite the president’s previous statements, no official action has been taken to phase out FEMA, a White House official told The Independent.
However, small steps have been taken to change the way states and FEMA operate, as seen in the government’s efforts to in responding to the devastating Texas floods, which have left more than 120 people dead.
Trump has left most of the response decision-making up to Texas Governor Greg Abbott while providing federal funding to fit the state’s needs.
An unnamed White House official told The Washington Post that this is how the president sees the future of FEMA.
The official told The Post it did not make sense for federal workers from other parts of the country, who do not understand the geography or communities of a state, to “swoop in” and try to control the response and make decisions.
“Without any official action...you’re already seeing the theory” of the administration’s new approach “taking place in Texas,” the official said.
“The president immediately delivered the dollars, Texas already has that money in their hands, and Gov. [Greg] Abbott is the lead decision-maker when it comes to the Texas floods. You should expect this structure, that has quietly taken place, to continue,” they added.
While state and local emergency response teams have long advocated for FEMA reform, some have expressed concern that the implemented changes have made emergency response slower and less coordinated in Texas.
FEMA officials told news outlets that it was difficult to get necessary funding to pre-position search and rescue teams near the river when the flooding first occurred. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has asked that all department contracts and grants costing more than $100,000 be personally approved by her.
Additionally, FEMA sent fewer federal teams to help respond to the emergency in Texas as part of its efforts to scale back federal involvement.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement that federal assistance was “always intended to supplement state actions, not replace those actions” and that FEMA’s role has become “outsized.”
“While Federal assistance was always intended to supplement state actions, not replace those actions, FEMA’s outsized role created a bloated bureaucracy that disincentivized state investment in their own resilience,” Jackson said.
“President Trump is committed to right-sizing the Federal government while empowering State and local governments by enabling them to better understand, plan for, and ultimately address the needs of their citizens,” Jackson said.
Trump created the FEMA Review Council, made up of federal, state, and local officials as well as emergency response leaders, to assist in determining how best to reform the federal emergency response agency
The council, which has met several times to discuss the matter, will come up with a concrete list of recommendations to the president in November.
Trump will ultimately have the final decision on the matter, but at this point, the agency is not being axed.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to indirectly confirm this when asked about the future of FEMA during a briefing on Monday.
“The President wants to ensure American citizens always have what they need during times of need. Whether that assistance comes from states or the federal government, that’s a policy discussion that will continue, and the President has always said he wants states to do as much as they can, if not more,” Leavitt said.
