Why billions in disaster aid go unspent
Texas has relinquished $225 million in federal aid over the past 10 years that Washington had granted it to ready communities for disasters, according to federal records reviewed by Thomas Frank and Mike Lee.
In fact, Texas officials twice turned down the county that experienced the worst of this month's flooding when it asked for a small portion of available federal money to set up a flood warning system.
Texas is not unique in letting federal disaster money lie fallow.
Since 2015, the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program has heaped more than $23 billion on states to prepare for floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other threats. The funding is automatically approved for mitigation against future hazards when a federal disaster is declared, and it is provided in addition to federal funds doled out to clean up and rebuild after disasters strike.
But roughly $21 billion of that federal grant money remains unspent.
The federal government has clawed back some of the disaster money because states never used it. Over the past decade, states have relinquished $1.4 billion of federal mitigation grant money, including Texas' $225 million.
The problem: Federal officials stress that the untapped federal funds are a lost opportunity to prepare for instead of simply respond to deadly events. But states and counties often lack the staff, expertise or bandwidth to navigate a cumbersome federal process to tap those funds.
Even though the federal grants are automatically approved after a disaster declaration, applicants have to drum up hundreds of pages to prove to federal disaster agencies that their proposed projects are feasible, make financial sense, and comply with environmental and historical preservation laws.
It's a potentially deadly inefficiency within the federal bureaucracy of disaster preparation, Thomas and Mike write, even as climate change intensifies the extreme weather that can hurtle through communities with little notice.
A former emergency management official in Nevada, David Fogerson, summed up the federal grant program as a 'blessing and a curse.'
'It almost becomes overload,' he said, 'when you're trying to manage the disaster and then you're trying to measure how to protect against the next disaster.'
It's Monday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Heather Richards. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to hrichards@eenews.net.
Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: Zack Colman breaks down how Democrats are shifting their messaging on energy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Power Centers
U.S. disengagement in red, white and blueClimate and energy experts were swept up in the mass firing of State Department employees Friday — thwarting U.S. engagement just as China grabs the reins on clean energy development, former diplomats say.
Around 75 people focused on climate have left State since President Donald Trump took office. Two-thirds of the Bureau of Energy Resources were let go Friday, according to estimates. The State Department declined to confirm those figures, Sara Schonhardt reports.
'It's crippling,' said Dan Reifsnyder, a former diplomat who spearheaded U.S. climate efforts at the State Department from their beginning. 'I think the biggest thing that the United States brings to these international fora are really very bright people, very dedicated people, people with ideas, people with creativity, people with talent.'
State says the restructuring will make it 'more accountable, more accessible, and more transparent.' The move comes as Trump defunds the transition to clean energy, withdraws from global climate efforts and cuts weather and disaster spending.
Check the 'yes' boxA representative from the Department of Government Efficiency told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's chair and top staff that they were expected to 'rubber stamp' new reactors tested by the departments of Energy or Defense, Francisco 'A.J.' Camacho and Peter Behr report.
Trump has said he wants to quadruple the U.S. supply of nuclear power by 2050. Tech industry allies, Republicans in Congress and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright have been sharply critical of the NRC for what they say is an unreasonably slow approval process for nuclear technology.
Defenders of the agency say the political push to build more nuclear reactors, and fast, doesn't change NRC requirements under the law to ensure new reactor designs are safe.
Shrinking agenciesHouse Republican appropriators unveiled their fiscal 2026 funding legislation for the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, with steep cuts proposed for both agencies, Kevin Bogardus, Garrett Downs and Michael Doyle report.
The bill would approve about $38 billion for agencies under its purview, nearly $3 billion below the fiscal 2025 amount. Interior would get about $14.8 billion and EPA would be funded at $7 billion, a 23 percent cut for the environment agency.
Sierra Club boss is on leaveBen Jealous is on leave from his job as the Sierra Club's boss after a tumultuous stretch leading the organization, Robin Bravender reports.
The green group informed staff in a cryptic message Friday that Jealous was on leave and that an acting boss would be filling in. But the group didn't provide details about the cause of Jealous' leave or how long it would last, raising questions about the long-term leadership of the iconic environmental group as it faces off against the Trump administration.
In Other News
Metal mania: A site in Arizona is being fast-tracked to become the first new big U.S. copper mine in more than a decade after Trump said he'd impose a 50 percent tariff on imports on Aug. 1.
Overstated: Grid experts say a Department of Energy report on blackouts is using questionable math to back up its claims.
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Union leaders are pleased with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's recent openness to nuclear energy and gas pipelines.
Delays to California's cap-and-trade program made the state lose out on nearly $3 billion in revenue last year, a climate advocacy group says.
House Republicans included a provision in their 2026 transportation spending bill that would prevent federal funds from being awarded for high-speed rail projects in California and Texas.
That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.
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