President Trump CANNOT actually close down FEMA, a creature of Congress…..
Red states has FEMA operation on a regular basis…
They do NOT wanty the FEDERAL Dollars and staff to go away….
They might want a bit more …
But NOT the whole ball of wax….
They are just NOT capable …..
Deeply red states are experiencing some of the costliest disasters, and lawmakers from those states fear that eliminating Federal Emergency Management Agency would leave them on the hook for increasingly expensive bills. So while they’re open to overhauling FEMA, congressional Republicans said they flatly reject the idea of abolishing the agency.
“FEMA can’t go away,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters last week. “I think the first job of the federal government is to protect people and property.
Trump’s broadsides against FEMA came amid multibillion-dollar recovery efforts from Hurricanes Helene and Milton last fall and California wildfires that devastated the Los Angeles area in January. Speaking to reporters on Jan. 24 in deluged western North Carolina, he said he would “begin the process of reforming FEMA or getting rid of FEMA.”
“I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away,” said Trump, who has criticized the agency’s handling of catastrophes in North Carolina and elsewhere. He added, “I’d like to see the states take care of disasters.”…
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States can ask to take control of certain recovery functions and send FEMA a bill later for repayment, said a former FEMA official who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. But what Trump floated sounds more like a wholesale change to put states in the lead, the official said.
Such a system would likely create myriad challenges, the former official said. Many states lack the capacity or experience to budget for disasters. And emergency managers routinely criticize an existing Department of Housing and Urban Development disaster recovery program that requires states to front the money, with many waiting years for reimbursement.
“That’s not exactly the solution either,” the ex-FEMA official said.
The University of Delaware’s Siders acknowledged, however, that some changes could make sense….
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But unlike the federal government, local governments must balance their budgets, said Zeb Smathers, the Democratic mayor of Canton, a town in western North Carolina where Helene-induced flooding destroyed homes and businesses. He wondered aloud how local governments could pay for recoveries if the tab grew out of control….
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