Senate Republicans Block FEMA Funding Again

Washington, DC – Today, Senate Republicans blocked bills from Senate Democrats to fund FEMA, the TSA, the Coast Guard, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, for the second time this week. Trump and Republican lawmakers continue to blame Democrats for the partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, but don’t buy the spin. The facts are: Republican lawmakers are holding FEMA hostage because of their refusal to negotiate on ICE.  

Climate Power Senior Advisor Mia Logan issued the following statement: “Republican Senators are forcing TSA workers to go without pay and holding FEMA funding hostage to avoid any accountability for  ICE terrorizing our cities and communities. Republican lawmakers seem to only care about disaster relief when they can use it to score political points. If they actually cared about keeping people safe and helping communities recover from disasters, they would fund FEMA, not ICE.” 

Senate Republicans are enabling Trump’s gutting of FEMA, leaving us unprepared for disasters: 

• Trump has cut key FEMA staff, delaying the distribution of critical disaster funding. In 2025, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security drafted plans to cut FEMA’s workforce by more than 50%, resulting in the loss of more than 11,500 jobs.
• Under Trump, pending FEMA disaster applications are sitting longer on average than at any other point in the previous 37 years.
• Last week, Trump canceled all FEMA emergency manager trainings, except for those related to the FIFA World Cup — leaving communities more vulnerable to extreme weather. 

• Trump stopped approving new allocations from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation and Grant Program, becoming the first president in at least three decades to deny governors’ requests for funding that’s meant to protect people and property.

• Trump canceled FEMA’s $1 billion Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program and called for an immediate return of awarded funds, threatening hundreds of resiliency projects in communities nationwide.

• Trump’s now fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem personally held up billions of dollars in critical disaster relief funding with her requirement for her personal approval on all FEMA expenses exceeding $100,000, creating a $17 billion bottleneck.

• Under Trump and Noem’s leadership, DHS redirected over $600 million from FEMA to build migrant detention centers and forcibly reassigned dozens of key FEMA staff to work for ICE on deportations, putting communities at further risk from extreme weather.