Trump's threat to FEMA couldn't come at a worse time

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2 days ago

As this year's hurricane season begins, states and local governments are bracing for what climate scientists warn could be another record-breaking year of storms, wildfires and floods. As the representative for Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District — which includes New Orleans and surrounding parishes — I know what it means to live in the bull's-eye of weather disasters.
In addition to countless unnamed storms, in recent memory, we've weathered hurricanes Katrina and Ida, which upended lives, decimated neighborhoods and tested every seam of our emergency safety net. In those moments, FEMA — imperfect as it may be — was a lifeline.
But now, that lifeline is under threat.
With Executive Order 14180, President Donald Trump has initiated a dangerous restructuring of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which millions of Americans rely on in their most desperate moments. The president's plan shifts the responsibility for emergency preparedness and disaster recovery from the federal government to already overburdened state and local governments.
That's not reform. It's federal abandonment. It's like closing fire stations and telling people to buy their own hoses.
A FEMA Review Council, chaired by political loyalists including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is tasked with evaluating whether FEMA has become too 'bureaucratic.' But let's call this what it really is: a plan to downsize or altogether dismantle FEMA's role, cloaked in the language of efficiency and decentralization. In fact, the president has suggested eliminating FEMA, and he fired his acting FEMA director the day after he told a House Appropriations Committee panel, 'I do not believe it is in the best interests of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.'
I represent a state that knows devastation. In 2021, nearly 500,000 Louisiana households were approved for assistance in the 30 days after Hurricane Ida. But we are not alone. FEMA responded to more than 100 declared disasters in 2024, including back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton that battered Florida and Georgia. In North Carolina, communities are still recovering from Helene's catastrophic flooding.
Disaster recovery is incredibly difficult even with federal coordination and resources. Without it, we are setting communities up for failure. These actions have consequences — and they will cost lives.
The idea that state and local governments — many of which are already underfunded and understaffed — can assume the full logistical and financial burden carried by FEMA is not only unrealistic, it's reckless.
Louisiana knows what it means to be left behind. Katrina showed us what happens when FEMA fails. Louisianans couldn't get back on their feet because the very programs created to help them were insufficient, stalling recovery efforts for years. But Ida showed us what's possible when the federal response is swift, coordinated and sustained. We benefited when FEMA learned from past disasters and provided a more robust, effective response through partnerships with state and local governments on the ground. Weakening FEMA is not just bad policy, it's a moral outrage.
And the timing couldn't be worse. In 2023, the U.S. experienced 28 weather disasters — hurricanes, floods, wildfires, tornadoes — that cost at least a billion dollars in property losses. That was the highest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Climate change isn't theoretical. It isn't a prediction for what will happen in the future. It's here, now, reshaping our landscape and threatening lives from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes.
Not only is Trump gutting FEMA, but he's also proposing massive cuts to NOAA and its subsidiary, the National Weather Service — agencies responsible for storm tracking, forecasting and early warnings. These are the tools emergency managers rely on to know when to evacuate, how to deploy resources and how to save lives. In fact, the National Weather Service office in Lake Charles, Louisiana — ground zero for multiple hurricanes over the last five years — is down a director and two senior meteorologists.
The administration is systematically dismantling the architecture of public safety. This is not how you protect a nation. This is how you manufacture chaos.
If FEMA's role is weakened or decentralized, response times will slow — when every second matters. Poorer communities, particularly communities of color, will be disproportionately harmed. And the national safety net we rely on to manage crises will fray.
And let's not be fooled into thinking disasters only strike red states or only strike blue states. Hurricanes don't ask your party affiliation. Floodwaters don't care who you voted for. They destroy everything in their path — indiscriminately. That's why FEMA must remain a federal responsibility: coordinated, professional and responsive to every American.
Aug. 29 will mark 20 years since Hurricane Katrina. As we approach that anniversary, it's devastating to watch this administration dismantle the very federal systems that helped my city rebuild, even if they weren't perfect. We should be honoring the lives lost, not putting future lives at risk.
Yes, FEMA needs improvement. It must be more efficient, more equitable and more transparent. But dismantling it is not the solution. Gutting FEMA in the middle of the climate crisis is like grounding rescue helicopters in the middle of a flood.
We need to invest in FEMA. Strengthen NOAA. Restore staffing and leadership at the National Weather Service. Give state and local governments the tools they need, but do not make them do it alone.
Because when the next disaster hits — and it will — we won't have time to debate funding formulas or organizational charts. We will need help. Fast. Fair. And federal.
That's the America our people deserve. And that's the FEMA we must defend.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com