FEMA under fire: Trump slashes, GOP sweats

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Raw Story

May 19, 2025 4:01AM ET


Many Republicans in Congress are uncomfortable with the Trump administration’s proposed overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and some of them are going public with their concerns. “FEMA needs to be reformed, but it’s an important instrument in recovery in every disaster I’ve ever seen,” Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, said. “We need to be careful about not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2026 skinny budget proposes cutting $646 million from FEMA’s spending, while providing little detail about what efforts the cuts would affect. It comes as the administration imposes broader changes toward the president’s goal of scaling FEMA down, including cutting employees, removing funding allocations and ending its major grant programs.

In Congressional appropriations hearings for the Department of Homeland Security, lawmakers pressed Secretary Kristi Noem for details about the big FEMA cuts. In those remarks and in following interviews, some Republicans signaled caution on the slash-and-burn of the federal government’s emergency response to disasters.

One major grant in particular, the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which funds local projects to reduce risk to life and property in the event of natural disasters, continues to be a sticking point. Trump signed the program into law in 2018 with bipartisan support. A FEMA spokesperson called BRIC “wasteful and ineffective” when the agency ended the program in April.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/fema-2672071832/

[Lovie777]

1. GQP should have not foreseen this?..............

where are their brains?

Oh yes, in their pockets, and you know what, they don't care.

[Magoo48]

14. Greed is a social disease which, like syphilis, eventually leaves the sufferer completely mad. So, no brain.

[Ray Bruns]

2. That's right stinky. Cut FEMA right before hurricane season.

Good move.

[get the red out]

3. Yep

And the "Gulf of America" sure gets 'em.

[2naSalit]

7. And right as...

Many of his voters are getting bombarded by tornado events several times a week. By the end of this tornado phase, it will be the march of the hurricanes, also hitting mostly his supporters. Boy are they evr going to miss FEMA.

[usonian]

4. I watched live video of tornado chasers last night. Wondering if Go Fund Me is going to replace FEMA for victims.

posted in this thread.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/123211664

[lonely bird]

5. So

Tom Cole (R-Asshat) says FEMA needs to be reformed.

In what fucking way?

Great that a Republican shithead actually had a cogent thought about not throwing the baby out with the bath water. Wonderful. Yet we have not seen one fucking instance of what “reform” would look like, how it would be implemented and what plans would be created in the event that the law of unintended consequences rears its ravenous head.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. UPDATED: FEMA is a no show!!

Last edited Tue May 20, 2025, 04:56 PM - Edit history (1)

I wanted to edit this post, as it turns out, city leaders have said that they have NOT seen FEMA on the ground in STLMO, after the tornados went through. This wasn't a small track tornado, as it was 1 mile wide, and went 22 miles through the metro area...
ARTICLE BELOW (a portion of only): A prominent Republican lawmaker like Hawley begging a Republican administration to approve emergency aid for a Republican state is a sign of how badly federal agencies responsible for the welfare of vulnerable populations have eroded under Trump. The plea came a day after St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer told MSNBC that "FEMA has not been on the ground" and that the city does not "have confirmed assistance from FEMA at this point."

"What we need right now is federal assistance. This is where FEMA and the federal government has got to come in and help communities. Our city cannot shoulder this alone. The state of Missouri cannot shoulder this alone," Spencer said. "We need partners at the national level, at the federal level, to step up and help - and this is not just true for St. Louis. Cities across the nation, when they are experiencing disasters such as this, this is what the federal government is for."

MY OLD ARTICLE:

So, we in STLMO will feel the first impacts of tRUMP's cutbacks at FEMA? I have still seen FEMA on the ground,
In STLMO broadcasts, but perhaps after all is said and done, we'll get a better picture of what tRUMP has cut out, and how it's impacted this Central West End community that got hit w/ the 1-mile-wide tornado, w/ a 22-mile path through the city.

[Bayard]

8. They may be, "uncomfortable,"

But it won't stop them from rubber stamping whatever he wants. I've never seen such disgusting and dangerous subservience.

[LiberalArkie]

9. Yes, FEMA needs to be reformed. Away from the Bush FEMA that gutted the agency to the

James Lee Witt FEMA that modernized it and provided actual training for its people.

In the past it they were patronage jobs. Witt fixed than. Bush move it back to patronage jobs.

[patphil]

10. We're a nation prone to tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods.

The Trump administration's slash and burn program of "fixing" Federal Agencies like FEMA is going to cause a whole lot of misery for people who go through any of these disasters.
But then, it's a small price to pay for giving financial assistance to the super rich.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. And that is not counting the winter

and particularly those areas prone to ice storms that can do massive damage to trees and powerlines.

[patphil]

12. Yup, we've got it all that Mother Nature can throw at us.

[OMGWTF]

13. Hey Red States -- Fk Trump and fk you for voting for him!

I hope the full weight of your shitty decision crashes down hard on your stupid heads, so maybe you will finally WAKE THE FK UP!

[Hekate]

15. Dear New Orleans: Unless you had the Dutch come in and build dikes since Katrina, I suggest evacuation...

…at the first bad weather report.
Best of luck,
The rest of us

[Hekate]

16. "Fire Season" out West is now year round. We do get some notice & really rely on it. But there's no notice for quakes.