FEMA Has Been “Stretched to Its Limits” for Years

The day before Hurricane Helene began its 600-mile path of devastation through the southeast US, Congress passed a stop-gap funding bill to keep the government running through December 20. Left out of the bill: new funding for disaster victims.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been “stretched to its limits” for years now, even as the threat from climate-related tragedy is greater than ever. Last year, the US had 28 billion-dollar climate and weather disasters, the most ever recorded. In August of this year, the US had already tallied 19 billion-dollar weather disasters and FEMA declared an “immediate needs funding” (INF) moratorium, pausing payouts of nearly $9 billion for relief projects from prior disasters, causing delays in rebuilding and recovery efforts. While withholding supplemental funds requested by the White House, Congress’s Continuing Resolution did give FEMA early access to 2025 funds to use in response to Hurricane Helene and to lift the INF and restart payouts for prior disasters. But FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell says it will likely be back in INF mode — putting projects on hold again — as early as January of next year.

The future of FEMA is on the ballot this November. “FEMA needs to fire on all cylinders right now,” Vermont Senator Peter Welch wrote in a statement. Welch is part of a “growing bipartisan coalition of Senators from disaster-impacted states” demanding more consistent and “proactive” disaster-relief funding. Meanwhile, Project 2025 calls for the downsizing of FEMA, including cuts to its public rebuilding funding, the termination of all disaster-preparation grants, and the phaseout of the federal flood insurance program.

Hurricane Helene offers journalists a news peg to explore candidates’ positions on how they envision the agency will deal with adaptation, relief, and recovery efforts in future years as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of storms, flooding, wildfires, and extreme heat waves.

Reporting Ideas

• Check the record. Axios reports that “a growing number of lawmakers in states hit by Hurricane Helene are pressing for Congress to return from its October recess to pass additional disaster relief funding.” Where do your state representatives stand on supplemental funding for FEMA later this year, and on long-term funding for FEMA going forward?
• Climate denial in Congress. There are “123 members of the 118th Congress publicly deny the scientific consensus of human-caused climate change,” according to the Center for American Progress, in an analysis that looks at how the politicization of climate change is affecting Congress’s ability to act. Are your representatives on the list? Interview them about Hurricane Helene and ask them how they think FEMA should be funded in light of superstorms hitting the US with increasing frequency.
• Dig into Project 2025. The Department of Homeland Security chapter, authored by Ken Cuccinelli, a former Trump senior Homeland Security official, calls for the dissolution of the federal flood insurance program and shifting “the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government.” Talk to representatives on the federal and local level about how these proposals would affect mitigation and resilience projects, rebuilding efforts, and disaster survivors in their communities.
• Follow the money. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace recently posted the Disaster Dollars Database, which “makes visible the largest pots of federal grantmaking to absorb uninsured disaster losses” offering data to “better understand the impact of disasters and what is available to the people and communities who live through them.” Use the database to research disaster funds distributed since 2015 and ask candidates how they would like to see FEMA improve in addressing climate “shocks” going forward.

Take Inspiration

• Former president Donald Trump continued to deny climate change in comments he made while visiting communities devastated by Hurricane Helene in southern Georgia, writes The Guardian ’s Dharna Noor ; he then jetted off to two fundraisers in “oil-rich Texas.”
• “Congress is the disaster. And getting anything done there now, in the 118th Congress — anything that makes sense in the 118th Congress seems impossible,” Representative Jared Moskowitz (Florida-D) told The New Republic .
• “As president, Trump delayed disaster aid for hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico and diverted money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in order to finance an effort to return undocumented migrants to Mexico, reports Matthew Daly at The Associated Press .
• “Under pressure to control housing costs, Republican lawmakers rejected standards meant to protect against disasters,” reports Christopher Flavelle for 纽约时报 .
• Reuters reports that “only 1 in 200 homes in [the] flood-hit area has flood insurance,” because FEMA maps do not account for flooding risks from rainfall.

Spotlight Piece

The Lever ’s Lucy Stockton and Freddy Brewster take a deep dive into the past 20 years of North Carolina’s climate policies. The state was a “climate leader” in the early 2000s, but beginning in 2010, “Republican lawmakers and corporate interests continually fought climate adaptation and mitigation measures that could have helped communities withstand the storm’s tidal surge, hurricane-force winds, and widespread flooding.”

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