As Congress Examines Local Needs In Disaster Recovery, States Cannot Afford To Fill The Hole Trump's FEMA Overhaul Would Leave
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, as the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance convenes a hearing on local needs in disaster recovery, Sabotaging Our Safety is calling out the central contradiction: Donald Trump’s Advisory Committee’s proposed overhaul of FEMA would push those "local needs" onto states that have neither the resources nor the infrastructure to meet them, leaving the most vulnerable survivors with nothing and cutting communities off from the federal disaster grants they depend on to rebuild.
"Congress is asking today what communities need to recover from disasters," said Sabotaging Our Safety Advisory Board member Ashley Shelton. "The answer is the same as it has always been: a functioning federal partner. The FEMA Review Council's proposals would eliminate that partnership precisely when hurricane season is making clear how much it matters. States and local governments will not be able to absorb this loss. Ultimately, survivors will bear the brunt of the Trump administration’s political games."
The math doesn’t add up for survivors:
All told, Trump’s review council recommends shifting a cumulative $1.5 billion cost burden entirely onto states, counties, and survivors.
They recommend increasing the per capita indicator 54% before a federal declaration can even be requested.
And 29% of disaster declarations from 2012 to 2025 would have been excluded under the report’s recommended threshold increase.
The report also proposes replacing FEMA's Public Assistance program, which has delivered approximately $180 billion in disaster recovery grants to states and local governments, with a new parametric block grant system called RAPID. Under RAPID, federal aid would be determined by a formula tied to disaster metrics like wind speed and flood depth, not the real, documented costs communities actually face.
Even the Republican vice chair of Donald Trump's own FEMA Review Council admits that the council's recommendations to shift disaster management responsibility to states would be, in his words, "an extreme burden upon the states."
###
