‘TERMINATED!’ Trump Calls to End FEMA and Let States Manage Disasters for ‘BIG SAVINGS’

iluvatar5150 · Sep 26, 2025

Chesterton said:
Texas has a family owned private business which helps with disaster relief faster, more efficiently and more comprehensively than FEMA, and does it out of its own pocket, no cost to the taxpayer.

More comprehensively? FEMA's 2023 Disaster Fund was $19.7 billion dollars.

HEB does good work, but the reason we've assigned the federal government a role in situations like this is because the magnitude of the response required is larger than virtually any private organization could manage.

If you want to argue that a grocery store did a better job of helping people than FEMA did under the Dream Team of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Kristi Noem, well... who could've seen that coming? Certainly none of us who voted for the other guy.

essentialsaltes · Oct 29, 2025

An investigation into FEMA didn’t fit Trump’s narrative. His DHS ordered a new probe that did

In the final month of the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump put his critique of FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene front and center, making false claims that funding was stolen for illegal migrants and the agency ignored requests for help.

Days after his inauguration, Trump visited western North Carolina and floated the idea of eliminating FEMA.

An investigation that began under then-President Joe Biden and carried over into the Trump administration ultimately cleared the Federal Emergency Management Agency, finding no evidence of a systemic effort to deny aid based on politics while singling out one supervisor’s actions as illegal and improper.

But at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, leadership including Secretary Kristi Noem weren’t satisfied, three former senior FEMA officials told CNN. Within weeks, leaders ordered a new investigation that came to a much different conclusion.

The investigation looked at whether FEMA workers who went door-to-door in disaster zones recorded any protected private information about survivors’ political views. It found roughly 100 field reports — a small fraction out of tens of thousands of cases during the Biden administration — where FEMA workers visiting homes mentioned campaign signs or made notes related to “political beliefs.”

Investigators flagged a few instances where canvasser notes mentioned “Trump” or “Biden,” but in most cases, workers were documenting gun signage, which also was categorized as political. The report does not show that disaster survivors were denied aid because of these notations, and sources say the gun notations were often made for safety reasons.

Yet Noem portrayed the findings as proof of FEMA’s “widespread” and “systematic

Meanwhile....

Trump gives disaster declarations to Alaska and others but denies Illinois, Vermont and Maryland

The decisions fell mostly along party lines, with Trump touting on social media Wednesday that he had “won BIG” in Alaska in the last three presidential elections and that it was his “honor” to deliver for the “incredible Patriots” of Missouri, a state he also won three times.

Fantine · Oct 29, 2025

What happened to the "United States?" There are 50 of them!
He is worse than criminal.
Violating his oath! The Constitution!
25th Anendment is what's needed, but impeachment would do.
Read when he was AWOL 6 days in August he'd collapsed with a stroke and Walter Reed moved heaven and earth to restore him to his previous level of incompetent incoherence.
I can't help but think the boxes of classified materials he absconded with in 2020 had enough blackmailable evidence to sink every Republican in Congress.

essentialsaltes · Dec 3, 2025

essentialsaltes said:
FEMA employees call for reforms to restore disaster response capacity ahead of Katrina anniversary
The “Katrina Declaration and Petition to Congress” calls out reductions to CERT, the National Fire Academy and hazard grants as weakening national disaster readiness

FEMA employees who signed letter critical of Trump suspended, unsuspended, then resuspended

“CNN reporting revealed that 14 FEMA employees previously placed on leave for misconduct were wrongly and without authorization reinstated by bureaucrats acting outside of their authority,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill.

FEMA’s lawyers had determined that the decision to sign the letter were protected under both the First Amendment and the Whistleblower Protection Act. “They went back to work … yesterday morning and they were sent home yesterday afternoon,” Government Accountability Project senior counsel David Seide told The Hill Tuesday.

Fantine · Dec 3, 2025

There are rich states and poor (usually red) states. There are states that are continually beset with natural disasters--Florida, Louisiana, Texas, California--and others that are usually safe from hurricanes and forest fires.

This is why FEMA should be a federal program--and Trump should allow FEMA to do its job without petty vindictive revenge fantasies that he continually engages in.

essentialsaltes · Dec 10, 2025

Well, if you can't get rid of it, at least you can put one of the producers of pardoned convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza's 2000 Mules nonsense in charge of it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/12/09/gregg-phillips-fema-election-fraud/

Gregg Phillipps of 'True the Vote' is now Administrator of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery (ORR).

essentialsaltes · Dec 12, 2025

Vote to overhaul FEMA canceled after leaked report

The FEMA Review Council was scheduled to approve its recommendations for overhauling the agency Thursday.

The move came after Trump officials were angered that CNN had obtained a copy of the FEMA Review Council’s final report and published an article on its website Wednesday, according to two people who are close to the panel. One review council member told a person close to the panel that officials canceled the meeting to demonstrate that the leaked report has not been finalized and is subject to change.

The Trump-appointed 13-member council, led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has been working for months on recommendations to streamline FEMA and speed up disaster aid.

The cancellation apparently occurred at the last minute.

Shortly after noon Thursday, Noem was testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee and left the hearing before it ended to attend the review council meeting.

“I have to actually leave this hearing early because the FEMA Review Council is giving their report today on suggestions for changes to FEMA, and I have to co-chair it,” Noem told Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), who had asked her a question.

--

Council members were expected to vote on proposed cuts that would alter the way the federal government responds to declared emergencies.

The draft of the report signaled the review council’s plan to dramatically cut the agency even as climate change-fueled disasters increase, provoking swift condemnation from advocacy groups and emergency management experts. Critics panned the draft as a blueprint for weakening the nation’s primary emergency-response agency and shifting responsibility onto states unequipped and unprepared to manage crises alone.

The Washington Post reported that senior administration officials were displeased with the document’s abstract plan to restructure FEMA, prescribing huge cuts without providing specifics.

“It is time to close the chapter on FEMA,” the leaked report states, according to CNN, which reported that the draft calls for the most sweeping transformation of FEMA since its creation nearly five decades ago, including cutting half of the agency’s staff.

FEMA’s annual workload has more than doubled over the past two decades, as the warming climate supercharges Atlantic hurricanes, accelerates wildfire seasons and drives inland flooding with record rainstorms. What happens next with the review council’s recommendations may determine how the United States navigates a worsening era of climate extremes

Shana Udvardy, a policy analyst for The Union of Concerned Scientists, warned in a statement Thursday that the reported recommendations would “gut FEMA, leaving states to shoulder the burden of disasters and putting disaster victims at risk of serious harm.”

Many of the government’s most seasoned FEMA staff were already pushed out or sidelined in recent months, replaced, in some instances, by officials with minimal disaster management experience.

essentialsaltes · Dec 22, 2025

Montana gets a Yes, Colorado gets a No

Trump approves emergency declaration for Montana floods • Daily Montanan

Trump approves emergency declaration for Montana floods

dailymontanan.com

Gov. Greg Gianforte requested the presidential declaration on Dec. 16, seeking federal funds and assistance from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to support emergency response costs in Lincoln and Sanders counties and the Blackfeet Nation.

Montana got action in less than a week.

Trump administration denies disaster declarations for wildfires, flooding in Colorado, governor's office says

Colorado leaders are calling on President Donald Trump to reconsider the denial of disaster declaration requests the state made to help with recovery from severe flooding and wildfires this past year.

The fires were in August and the flooding in November.

Trump administration denies disaster declarations for wildfires, flooding in Colorado

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet are calling on Trump to reconsider.

www.9news.com

camille70 · Dec 22, 2025

essentialsaltes said:
Montana gets a Yes, Colorado gets a No

Trump approves emergency declaration for Montana floods • Daily Montanan

Trump approves emergency declaration for Montana floods

dailymontanan.com

Gov. Greg Gianforte requested the presidential declaration on Dec. 16, seeking federal funds and assistance from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to support emergency response costs in Lincoln and Sanders counties and the Blackfeet Nation.

Montana got action in less than a week.

Trump administration denies disaster declarations for wildfires, flooding in Colorado, governor's office says
Colorado leaders are calling on President Donald Trump to reconsider the denial of disaster declaration requests the state made to help with recovery from severe flooding and wildfires this past year.

The fires were in August and the flooding in November.

Trump administration denies disaster declarations for wildfires, flooding in Colorado

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet are calling on Trump to reconsider.

www.9news.com

The area affected has majority Trump supporters.

Trump denies disaster funds to Democratic Colorado, but it's MAGAs he's hurting

“No” The facts are simple. A Governor asked for disaster funds. Trump said “no”. Most MAGAs likely supported their guy. However, some of the victims of his decision were Trump supporters. And they may well be less enthusiastic about his decision. Let...

www.dailykos.com

essentialsaltes · Dec 27, 2025

FEMA denies aid to Arizona counties after disastrous monsoon floods

“The people of Gila and Mohave County were devastated by flooding from severe monsoon storms this September. Now, they’ve been denied support from the federal government with little explanation,” Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) said in a statement.

However, the Trump administration has sought to shrink federal disaster assistance to states and denied disaster relief to Colorado after a series of wildfires and floods earlier this year, with strong objections from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D).

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5662776-arizona-fema-denies-flood-aid/

essentialsaltes · Dec 27, 2025

Mohave County was the Trumpiest county at 77%. Gila was not far behind at 68%

But (like Colorado and unlike Montana), the governor comes with a D after their name.

essentialsaltes · Jan 6, 2026

FEMA Workforce Facing Massive Cuts as DHS Emails Reveal Plan to Slash Disaster Teams

In a move that has sent shockwaves through the emergency management community, internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents obtained by The Washington Post reveal a sweeping plan to dismantle nearly half of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disaster response workforce. The leaked emails and spreadsheets detail a strategy led by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to drastically scale back the federal government’s role in disaster recovery, starting with the elimination of thousands of specialized positions.

The proposed cuts target the heart of the agency’s field operations: the Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) staffers. These employees are the “boots on the ground” who deploy immediately following hurricanes, wildfires, and floods, often remaining in devastated communities for years to oversee complex rebuilding projects. According to the documents, the administration is eyeing a 41 percent reduction in CORE disaster roles—a loss of more than 4,300 positions. Even more striking is a proposed 85 percent cut to “surge staffing,” the standby workforce used when disasters overwhelm local resources.

Secretary Noem has been vocal about her desire to shrink the agency, arguing that the federal government has become a “crutch” for states that should be more self-reliant. During a cabinet meeting last year, Noem reportedly expressed a desire to “eliminate FEMA” entirely, though her public comments have more recently focused on “streamlining” and “efficiency.” By shifting the burden of disaster costs and personnel to state and local governments, the administration claims it is protecting taxpayer dollars from a “broken” and “bureaucratic” system.

This news may assist you in choosing the proper summer camp for your kids.

camille70 · 2026-01-22T07:14:05-0600

States brace for disastrous winter storm as FEMA flounders

States are bracing for what’s projected to be “one of the most extreme” winter storms across nearly half of the United States this weekend. But the potential devastation could be amplified by the lack of federal disaster relief. In North Carolina, the...

www.dailykos.com

States are bracing for what’s projected to be “one of the most extreme” winter storms across nearly half of the United States this weekend. But the potential devastation could be amplified by the lack of federal disaster relief.

In North Carolina, the impacts of 2024’s Hurricane Helene can still be felt across the state. Now, freezing rain threatens dayslong power outages and arctic temperatures for residents who—in some cases—don’t even have a home to shelter in.

And thanks to President Donald Trump’s overhauling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, help is likely not on its way.

According to local reports, Carolinians who were placed in temporary housing by FEMA were evicted earlier than designated—some as recently as this week—despite having no other housing options.

essentialsaltes · 2026-01-23T09:48:19-0600

FEMA halts terminations of disaster workers as agency prepares for massive winter storm

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has abruptly halted ongoing terminations of hundreds of disaster workers as the agency prepares for an enormous winter storm expected to pound a large swath of the country in the coming days.

In an email Thursday afternoon, obtained by CNN, staff were told that FEMA would “cease offboarding” disaster workers whose employment contracts are expiring in the days ahead — a practice that had been ongoing since the start of January.

The pause came just hours after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, visited the agency’s headquarters for a briefing on the incoming winter storm, which forecasters warn could devastate communities and require a significant federal response.

Nearly all of the workers axed in January are part of FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery — known as “CORE” — the backbone of the agency, making up about 40% of FEMA’s workforce. These are often the first federal boots on the ground when disaster strikes. Many play key roles in critical projects and oversee aid distribution and long-term funding to states and communities. Their 2- to 4-year contracts have almost always been extended — until now. As of January 1, FEMA lost its authority to renew contracts, and now DHS and Noem must approve every extension.

This is no way to run an agency that's supposed to be about preparedness. We don't need these people! We do need these people!

wing2000 · 2026-01-23T10:00:21-0600

essentialsaltes said:
The pause came just hours after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, visited the agency’s headquarters for a briefing on the incoming winter storm, which forecasters warn could devastate communities and require a significant federal response.

Did she check on the status of Ted Cruz?

Always in His Presence · 2026-01-23T10:06:13-0600

essentialsaltes said:
In an email Thursday afternoon, obtained by CNN, staff were told that FEMA would “cease offboarding” disaster workers whose employment contracts are expiring in the days ahead — a practice that had been ongoing since the start of January.

Two weeks ago - huh?

They are retaining the help and yet somewhere - that's bad.

essentialsaltes · 2026-01-23T10:11:49-0600

Always in His Presence said:
Two weeks ago - huh?

Yes, they've let go 300 people this month until they stopped.

Always in His Presence said:
They are retaining the help and yet somewhere - that's bad.

They let go thousands last year.

AI Overview

In 2025, FEMA's workforce was reduced by approximately 2,000 to over 6,000 employees amid broader federal restructuring, falling from nearly 29,000 to around 23,000, despite warnings of understaffing. These cuts were driven by budget-focused initiatives rather than a lack of need

Always in His Presence · 2026-01-23T10:27:13-0600

essentialsaltes said:
Yes, they've let go 300 people this month until they stopped.

They let go thousands last year.

AI Overview

In 2025, FEMA's workforce was reduced by approximately 2,000 to over 6,000 employees amid broader federal restructuring, falling from nearly 29,000 to around 23,000, despite warnings of understaffing. These cuts were driven by budget-focused initiatives rather than a lack of need

Well..... yeah - they are transitioning to State controlled - That means it's getting shut down - why are you surprised that they are letting people go as they transition out of the group?

essentialsaltes · 2026-01-23T10:41:35-0600

Always in His Presence said:
Well..... yeah - they are transitioning to State controlled

Are the States increasing their emergency organizations to take up the slack? A very few have made some efforts, but on average, no. In fact, rainy day funds are falling.

Uncertainty Surrounding Federal Disaster Funding Looms Over State Budgets

“States are now bracing because they don’t know what will be expected of them in the disaster realm, capacity-wise,” said Nicole Ezeh, legislative director for state-federal affairs at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “That part of FEMA is really important to states because they don’t have the buying power to do that on their own.”

To handle these needs, states rely on a variety of funding mechanisms, including tapping rainy day funds when disaster strikes. North Carolina, for example, dipped into its then-record-high reserves in fiscal year 2025 to respond to the widespread effects of Hurricane Helene. Nationwide, however, rainy day fund capacity is falling, and most general reserves are not structured to serve as a recurring funding source for disaster relief and would be insufficient to replace lost federal disaster aid if that funding shifted substantially.

Always in His Presence · 2026-01-23T10:54:12-0600

Even if FEMA were to be significantly restructured or (hypothetically) phased out over time, states wouldn’t automatically stop receiving federal disaster assistance — because:

Federal disaster aid (like public assistance, individual assistance, hazard mitigation grants, etc.) is authorized and appropriated by Congress, not by FEMA’s existence alone.
That funding flows through federal statutes such as the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, which could remain in force even if the administrative structure changed.

So states would still be eligible for federal disaster funds in principle as long as:

Congress continues to authorize and fund those programs.
There’s some federal apparatus designated to administer them (whether called FEMA or something else).

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‘TERMINATED!’ Trump Calls to End FEMA and Let States Manage Disasters for ‘BIG SAVINGS’

Well-Known Member

Fact-Based Lifeform

An investigation into FEMA didn’t fit Trump’s narrative. His DHS ordered a new probe that did​

Trump gives disaster declarations to Alaska and others but denies Illinois, Vermont and Maryland​

Dona Quixote

Fact-Based Lifeform

FEMA employees call for reforms to restore disaster response capacity ahead of Katrina anniversary​

The “Katrina Declaration and Petition to Congress” calls out reductions to CERT, the National Fire Academy and hazard grants as weakening national disaster readiness​

FEMA employees who signed letter critical of Trump suspended, unsuspended, then resuspended​

Dona Quixote

Fact-Based Lifeform

Fact-Based Lifeform

Vote to overhaul FEMA canceled after leaked report​

​

Council members were expected to vote on proposed cuts that would alter the way the federal government responds to declared emergencies.​

Fact-Based Lifeform

Montana gets a Yes, Colorado gets a No​

Trump administration denies disaster declarations for wildfires, flooding in Colorado, governor's office says​

Newbie

Montana gets a Yes, Colorado gets a No​

Trump administration denies disaster declarations for wildfires, flooding in Colorado, governor's office says​

Fact-Based Lifeform

FEMA denies aid to Arizona counties after disastrous monsoon floods​

Fact-Based Lifeform

Fact-Based Lifeform

FEMA Workforce Facing Massive Cuts as DHS Emails Reveal Plan to Slash Disaster Teams​

Newbie

Fact-Based Lifeform

FEMA halts terminations of disaster workers as agency prepares for massive winter storm​

E pluribus unum

Jesus is the only Way

Fact-Based Lifeform

Jesus is the only Way

Fact-Based Lifeform

Uncertainty Surrounding Federal Disaster Funding Looms Over State Budgets​

Jesus is the only Way

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