REMINDER: Trump Is Responsible for Gutting FEMA, Blocking and Delaying Disaster Relief
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Washington, DC – In a hearing with the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Senators questioned Markwayne Mullin about the Trump administration’s failures with FEMA. Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have been politicizing and slashing funding for disaster response since the moment he took office, leaving recovery efforts slower and weaker. The facts are clear: Trump is responsible for gutting FEMA and repeatedly blocking and delaying disaster relief.
FIRST: Trump threatened to eliminate or “phase out” FEMA last year.
THEN: The Trump administration gutted FEMA and dismantled disaster mitigation and response—threatening critical aid and leaving communities more vulnerable to extreme weather events.
NOW: Under the Trump administration, pending FEMA disaster applications are sitting longer on average than at any other point in the previous 37 years.
REMINDER: Trump has a long history of holding up critical aid for communities. In Trump’s first term, he frequently politicized disaster relief, denying or stalling aid for states or communities he thought did not vote for him.
ANOTHER REMINDER: Since Trump took office, there has not been a qualified or Senate-confirmed FEMA administrator running the agency.
- Trump’s first acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, was fired one day after telling the House Appropriations Committee that FEMA should not be eliminated.
- Trump’s second acting administrator, David Richardson, lacked experience in disaster management, claimed he did not know there was a hurricane season, and was “unreachable” during the Texas floods, which killed more than 130 people.
- Trump’s current acting administrator, Karen Evans—whose “job was effectively to grind FEMA to a halt” and who was known as the “terminator” for “terminating grants, terminating contracts, and terminating people”—has enforced Noem’s $100,000 policy which held up critical aid and orchestrated the firing of emergency management experts.
THE BOTTOM LINE: No matter what Mullin says, he is going to carry out Trump’s agenda of gutting FEMA, politicizing, blocking, and stalling disaster relief, and pushing the cost of recovery onto devastated communities that have survived extreme weather.