{"id":248809,"date":"2025-09-23T11:33:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T11:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/248809\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T11:33:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T11:33:18","slug":"houston-leaders-condemn-fema-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/248809\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Leaders Condemn FEMA Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas\u2019 six-month hurricane season just hit the halfway point, and elected officials across the state say they\u2019re bracing themselves for delayed responses, reduced funding, and an increased strain on local resources as President Donald Trump threatens to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency. <\/p>\n

U.S. Congressman Al Green, D-Houston, joined the chorus last week of representatives condemning the president\u2019s actions and calling on state officials like Gov. Greg Abbott to do more than approve \u201cBand-Aid bills\u201d while Texas stands to lose $74 million because of Trump\u2019s cuts. <\/p>\n

Trump has said he\u2019ll \u201cphase out\u201d FEMA after the 2025 hurricane season ends in November. \u201cWe want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level,\u201d the president said<\/a> in June.<\/p>\n

But the cuts have already begun. The U.S. government announced in April it had eliminated FEMA\u2019s $4.6 billion Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities<\/a> grant program in the middle of a distribution cycle. <\/p>\n

Before adjourning a second special session this month, Texas lawmakers approved, in response to the July 4 Kerr County floods, a $368 million one-time appropriation from the state\u2019s Rainy Day Fund for disaster relief, with $50 million to help local governments purchase flood warning sirens and rain gauges and $28 million for flood monitoring grants. Green said last week that\u2019s not enough. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe state of Texas is not known to spend federal dollars wisely, and I\u2019m not sure the state of Texas is prepared to handle the amount of dollars necessary if FEMA is eliminated in its entirety,\u201d the congressman said on a press call last week. \u201cI regret that Texas is not doing more to insist on FEMA being managed as it has been. It\u2019s not a perfect organization but I\u2019ve been in Congress long enough to see how FEMA has benefited my constituents.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it seems that if Trump can aggressively dismantle an agency, he will,\u201d Green added. \u201cWhile this is not a good time for the most vulnerable in Texas, it is a great time for us to unite, band together, and fight to protect our communities.\u201d <\/p>\n

In August, Houston Controller Chris Hollins spoke at a virtual press briefing with finance chiefs from New Mexico, Vermont, and Minnesota to discuss the long-term repercussions that FEMA cuts could have on the economic health and safety of the country. <\/p>\n

Harris County\u2019s population is larger than 26 individual states, so the impact of a disaster is widespread, Hollins said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHoustonians deal with and live the consequences of these disasters on a regular basis,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not theoretical for us. There is significant human and economic pain, families who are displaced, small businesses shuttered, city and county budgets that are spread thin, and billions and billions of dollars of damage that we\u2019re still paying for.\u201d <\/p>\n

The federal government is turning disaster relief into a political game, the controller added. \u201cThese disasters, when they come, don\u2019t check if you\u2019re rich or poor, Black or white, Republican or Democrat,\u201d he said. \u201cThe floodwaters do not stop at the city line because the precinct voted blue or red. When Trump Republicans, when MAGA, go after these programs like FEMA, when they kneecap HUD\u2019s disaster recovery work, they don\u2019t punish a city. They punish human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Half of Houstonians can\u2019t afford an unexpected $400 expense, Hollins added, so the impact of a storm and rising insurance premiums can be devastating, forcing people to go into debt or rebuild alone. The homes of some residents in north Houston have still not been repaired after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey slashed FEMA, hollowed out staffing, they tried to kill proven resilience programs and wrapped it all in red tape that slowed the response down,\u201d Hollins said. \u201cThat can be life or death for Houstonians and for Texans. That\u2019s not fiscal discipline. It\u2019s not responsibility. It\u2019s recklessness, it\u2019s partisan sabotage, and it\u2019s a lack of public safety.\u201d <\/p>\n

Harris County commissioners and Houston City Council members have also expressed concern that, while FEMA hasn\u2019t traditionally swept in like a white knight and solved everyone\u2019s problems in the wake of a disaster, the agency is relied upon for much-needed funding that state and local governments don\u2019t have. <\/p>\n

Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis said last month that Trump and Abbott have attacked Harris County, not just by ignoring its needs but by \u201cactively working to undermine our ability to serve the people who need us most.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump has slashed, and continues to slash, federal safety net programs, even as more families have fallen into poverty,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cGreg Abbott has imposed state revenue caps that choke local budgets \u2014 part of a broader war on local governments and working people.\u201d<\/p>\n

At last week’s press briefing, Green was joined by Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert and Houston-based former FEMA Public Affairs Director Rafael Lemaitre to address how federal budget cuts are \u201csabotaging the safety\u201d of Texans.<\/p>\n

Calvert said that 13 people in his San Antonio-area precinct died during flash flooding in June. The legislature had an opportunity to earmark funds to repair drainage and coordinate emergency systems, but didn\u2019t do it, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey only allocated $50 million out of the Rainy Day Fund for a state that is full of rainy days,\u201d Calvert said. \u201cTexas has more money in its Rainy Day Fund than almost every state in the United States combined. Whether it was Winter Storm Uri, the February freeze that we had in 2021, or a number of emergencies that are truly rainy days for communities, we\u2019ve seen the state benefit the bankers holding onto that money a lot more than Main Street getting that money, and that is shameful.\u201d <\/p>\n

Thousands of lives would be saved if state and federal governments would fund \u201cmicrogrids<\/a>\u201d so hospitals and assisted living homes would be self-sustaining in a power outage, Calvert said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start seeing microgrids funded in local communities, that\u2019s when you\u2019re cooking with grease,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now we\u2019re not cooking with grease for a state that has a lot of emergencies.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an emergency right now that the people in Harris County and the Houston area do not have a congressperson should a hurricane or flooding happen in their area,\u201d Calvert said. \u201cThe fact that the governor hasn\u2019t moved that election faster after the death of Congressman Turner is a shame, and it\u2019s going to matter if we have an emergency.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rafael Lemaitre worked as a spokesman for FEMA during the Obama administration and said last week that the agency\u2019s importance has increased as climate change has caused natural disasters to become more frequent and more severe. <\/p>\n

Following his tenure with FEMA, Lemaitre moved to Houston and worked as a senior adviser to County Judge Lina Hidalgo. His family received individual FEMA assistance as disaster survivors of the 2024 derecho, he said, noting that he\u2019s dealt with the federal agency on multiple levels. <\/p>\n

Lemaitre said there\u2019s a dangerous narrative being advanced by Trump that FEMA is not prepared to handle disasters; that it\u2019s the role of state governments. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat simply isn\u2019t how disaster management operates,\u201d he said. \u201cDuring Democratic administrations, FEMA has always had a supporting role in helping states and governors in disaster response when their capacity is exceeded, which happens quite often. Even on what we call blue-sky days, FEMA has a vital role in supporting states and local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency used to operate the Center for Domestic Preparedness and the National Fire Academy, where first responders trained for free, learning to respond to mass casualty incidents and biological attacks, among other things. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis was gutted and closed down at the beginning of the Trump administration, forcing 7,000 first responders from across the country to miss out on the vital training that makes our communities more resilient,\u201d Lemaitre said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI fear that we\u2019re on a course to painfully relearn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina,\u201d he added. \u201cFolks on this call who saw that disaster unravel in real time on television probably remember that it was a bad time for emergency management. FEMA was underfunded. It wasn\u2019t a respected agency. And we saw the result of that. We saw a bungled response to a major disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green said the matter of disaster response and recovery ought to be a bipartisan issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a president who seems to believe that Congress is subordinate to him and that he is a superior personality,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to restore funding, but to do that, you have to have it in a bill that my Republican colleagues need to support. All of these things are very difficult when you don\u2019t have control of the House and don\u2019t have control of the Senate.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cDemocratic members of Congress will work to maintain FEMA, strengthen FEMA, and get more dollars into states when these events arrive,\u201d Green added. \u201cWe cannot eliminate the one agency that has the experience and the expertise to manage a disaster.\u201d
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