WASHINGTON, D.C. – Big changes are coming for FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. President Donald Trump could eliminate the agency and could put more responsibility on authorities. We spoke with territory leaders about the potential changes for FEMA.
“FEMA needs to be reformed,” said Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner Pablo Jose Hernandez. “Assistance needs to arrive quicker and reconstruction funds need to be disbursed in a faster, more efficient manner.”
Currently, FEMA works with state and local authorities before and after storms to help prepare for disasters, give out distributions and helps pay for the damage done by these extreme weather events. The President has repeatedly criticized the agency, suggested moving more responsibility from the feds to the states and he could eliminate FEMA as early as this December.
“Well its not going to be so much the states we’re gonna give out less money, we’re gonna give out directly from the president’s office we’ll have somebody here,” said President Trump regarding the potential changes during a press gathering in the Oval Office in June. “It could be Homeland Security. We’ll have a method.”
A FEMA spokesperson shared this with us:
“FEMA’s principles for emergency management assert that disasters are best managed when they’re federally supported, state managed and locally executed. Together with federal, state, tribal, local, and territorial agencies, we’re strengthening and enhancing partnerships. We’re ensuring our role supports decisions that need to happen at the state and local levels. Just like disaster response is best when locally led, state managed and federally supported, the same is true for preparedness. All types of preparedness start with families, individuals and local and state officials ahead of any emergency and disaster.
There is no uncertainty about what FEMA will be doing this Hurricane Season. FEMA is laser focused on disaster response, and protecting the American people. It’s not a secret that Under Secretary Noem and Acting Administrator Richardson, FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens. The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades. Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, and the efforts of Acting Administrator Richardson, FEMA is fully activated in preparation for Hurricane Season.”
US territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific see their fair share of storms and heavily rely on FEMA when disasters strike their islands. NOAA predicts there will be an above average hurricane season in the Atlantic this year. We asked US territory leaders what they think about FEMA and the potential restructuring of it:
“Eliminating FEMA will hurt non-continental US areas,” said the Resident Commissioner. “For example I heard ‘transfer FEMA to the states’. Well sure, Florida can get support from Alabama and Georgia but Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Alaska, Hawaii its’ not the same. We don’t have the same connection as the rest of the states, and we don’t have the same resources. So, the states cannot absorb FEMA’s function.”
“Secretary Noem reached out to us via letter and asked us to give commentary on what we think about the reforms in FEMA and I have been one person who has been an advocate of FEMA reform for awhile,” said USVI Governor Albert Bryan, Jr. “In some ways I applaud what the President is doing but a lot of times it’s twisted what he’s attempting to do. I’ll give you an example: we have three billion dollars for WAPA upgrades. We need 300-million dollars for short term cash to extend the debt that we have into long-term debt and we can’t get 300-million to do that one move. Just being able to refinance the debt of WAPA would save us hundreds of millions of dollars but we can’t get FEMA to give us that money because its dedicated for that specific purpose. Those are kind of the things the governor could have a block grant and you can say ‘okay here’s your 20-million dollars and that money could make interest for us and we could have the recovery going on’ and not only would it address the recovery but the interest would address road paving, schools, any other thing we needed.”
“We desperately need FEMA to continue the way it is for the island,” said Congressman Jim Moylan (R- GUAM). “We have such a great distance of getting here for supplies, we have the warehouse of course, we still have the funding but without FEMA’s help getting this distributed too that’s going to be quite difficult and I think that they need to continue, at least for the territory. A big chunk of their money is for the mainland and the states have the capacity to do these things, the islands don’t. So, that’s something we’re still in conversation with. It’s not a one size fits all.”
