Packaging in the highest agency of crash in the country is alarming among state and local emergency leaders – and leaving serious questions about the location of the billions of federal dollars they pays.
The Federal Emergency Agency still has not yet opened applications for a huge set of grants, including those for which many states are counting on the payment of major emergency operations. Some states pass most of this money into their most rural, low income to make sure they have a salary ambulance.
Fema exploded over a term in mid -May to start grants’ The process of submission of applicationsAccording to the National Emergency Association, without the word about why and what it can testify. Little precedents seem to be delayed.
“There is no transparency why this does not happen,” said Michael A. Cohen, Jr., who held the post of Fema Chief of Staff under former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
FEMA grants are complex and multifaceted and helps communities prepare and respond to everything from terrorist attacks to natural disasters.
In April Agency sharply canceled Another grant program, which is calculated in the district and local authorities that will help them reduce the risk of natural danger by moving forward. Included the money back Hundreds of millions have already promised. FEMA also quietly withdrew the notice for states that apply for a $ 600 million flood.
In addition, on June 11, US Department of Internal Security Christie Noah began to demand that she reconsider all Fema grants above $ 100,000. This can slow your wide multimillion -dollar crawling apparatus, said current and former Fema staff.
FEMA did not answer the propublica questions about the missed application term or impact of the reduction and delay of financing, instead answering the assistant secretary DHS TRICIA MCLAGHLIN, which noem focused on bringing responsibility for the costs of FEMA, “the introduction of waste, fraud, abuse, abuse, abuse, and Time of need to be approved. “
The memory that announced the change took place the day after President Donald Trump said he wanted to start dismantling Fema at the end of the Hurricane season.
All this has left the states – some of which rely on the federal government for the vast majority of emergency funding – in a difficult position. While Trump sharply criticized the results of FEMA’s work after a disaster strike, he almost said nothing about the future of his grant programs.
“This is a great concern,” said Lin Budd, President of the National Emergency Association and Director of the Wyoming Internal Security Department, which houses extraordinary situations. The state agency receives more than 90% of its operating budget from federal funds, especially FEMA grants. “The uncertainty does it very complicated,” she said.
In the North Carolina, the state has suffered greatly from a recent natural disaster, federal grants make up 82% of the emergency agency’s budget. The agency’s press secretary said the agency’s press secretary to provide it with “financing state legislators to provide it with” financing that will support the agency and its basic functions “and reduce its dependence on the financing of the federal grant.
Forced separation from federal dollars can have a negative impact in North Carolina and other states that pass on most of their Fema grants for the county and local agencies. Many rural counties have modest tax bases and are already stretched.
In May propublica published the story in which detail is about the horrors Hurricane Helen’s impact on one of these counties. There are 19,000 people in housing, he suffered the greatest loss of life per capita and damage to property in the storm. Jeff Howel, his ambulance leader, worked only with an incomplete employee and said that he had been asking additional assistance for years. And only after the thunderstorm did the district commissioners agree with the need.
“They understood how big the work is,” said Howell, who has since retired.
But even large metropolitan counties rely on grants. The opening of the Grant Upin application concerns Robert Vike Graham, the Deputy Director of Emergency Situations Charlotte-Meklenburg, which serves the area of 1.2 million and is home to the nuclear power plant. Learning and preparing Fema Grants helps the agency to pay for keeping the society in safety before the nuclear disaster.
However, Graham said he had addressed social media messages and news about grants – and about the future of Fema.
“We all have to be like hey what you heard? What do you know? What’s going on? Nobody knows,” said Graham.
Trump is in his second acting FEMA administrator in five months, and the director, who coordinates the national response of the disaster, has become his resignation on June 11. left or firedTogether with an unknown mass of his full -time workers.
“Every emergency manager I know is shouting,” You curl the system. “We have all called for reforms,” Graham said. “But it’s too much, too fast.
Vulnerable to political shifts
Shortly after President Jimmy Carter created FEMA in 1979 to centralize the federal disaster management, the agency began to throw grants to help communities fight large -scale destruction. Over the years, his grants have been applied, especially after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when huge new programs helped to preserve security against this disturbing new threat.
Today Fema works about a dozen Programs to get ready. Among other things, the money serves financial carrots to ensure that even state -owned states and constituencies work with heads of emergencies that help communities prepare and respond to terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
Former FEMA leaders said the states were largely satisfied with the seat and allowed the federal to pay. As a result, the grants have created a system of dependence that leaves the Ministry of Emergency Situations vulnerable to constantly changing national priorities, and, at the moment, the president, appointed to dismantle the agency.
Across the country, the percentage of state emergencies’ budgets paid by federal financing amounted to 99.4%, and 2024 Report of the National Emergency Association – he says. The spokesman refused to provide a gap of the state, so propublica overcame several.
Wyoming returned 90%. Texas receives about three quarters of its prompt budget from federal financing. Virginia receives approximately 70%. South Carolina ships about 61% of federal financing for everyday operations.
Most state emergency leaders agree that their states need less depending on the federal government for financing, “but there is some way to slip or terms where we can work on the purpose,” the Budd said.
To prepare for such a seismic change, especially in order for Wyoming this budget, it will take above ten years, especially those like Wyoming this budget added. His legislative body is in the middle of the budget talks for 2027-28.
When emergency managers are going to move instead, “the effects we are going to see is a lack of readiness, lack of coordination, training and partnerships,” the Budd said. “We will also not be able to answer.”
The key reason for which the states became so dependent on FEMA grants, despite the risk of national political shocks, is that the legislative bodies and local leaders did not always prefer the fee for emergency management, despite the important role. With the Fema grants they didn’t have to.
W. Craig Fugeit noticed a reluctance to wean FEMA grants from all levels of power. He served as FEMA administrator under Obama and before that, as the head of the emergency department in Florida under the then Govs. Jeb Bush and Charlie Christ.
“My experience tells me that the locals will not fit unless they deal with the catastrophe,” Fugeit said.
Since most grants on readiness do not require comparison of state and local authorities, he said it relieves their motivation for this – especially with other pressing needs that fight for these dollars.
“The real question is how much this is actually critical and should be the responsibility of local authorities?” said Fugeit. “Neither local authorities nor the states were very much forward in financing outside the lows to comply with federal dollars.”
Small town North Carolina
Following Hurricane Helen, North Carolina Emergency Agency ordered the report This criticized the state “excessive dependence on federal grants to finance major transactions.” Only about 16.5% of the state agency’s budget come from state appropriations.
The report notes that this dependence has led to insufficient state investment in the state and infrastructure on extraordinary situations. The deficit of the staff of the agency “strongly compromised the state’s reaction to Hurricane Helen”. Among other things, the lack of staff interfered with the ability of the state emergency group to maintain a 24 -hour operation, which was to support local and district officials, which were crowded with a large -scale storm.
North Carolina Mark Ples, co -chairman of the Republican Emergency Management Committee and the resumption of the accident, said the state’s conservative expenses and $ 3.6 billion in the reserves “gave us the opportunity to finance itself.”
But Democratic Representative Robert Reivs, a minority leader, is worried that any financial flexibility dries if a potential reduction in taxes in the coming years is planned, as the budget will be lack Some predicted.
Basically in the rural district of Washington, along the coast of the North Carolina hurricane, Lance Svindel is the only emergency office. His county, where 11,000 people live, lacks a large tax base.
Like other emergency leaders across the state, Svindel said he supports the reduction of the red tape and the FEMA waste, but “the financing of the grant is the main source of financing just to keep the light.”
One of the grants in the FEMA program, which blew up its term for opening the applications, pays half its salary. This grant can fund major local operations such as staffing, training and equipment. This is very important for local emergency offices: nearly 82% of districts across the country report it.
The decline in this particular grant within the Biden administration has already reduced what North Carolina gets – and therefore what is transmitted by a government food network as Swindell. North Carolina was allocated $ 8.5 million in the 2024 financial year, which decreased compared to $ 10.6 million for two years earlier.
Going forward, Swindell is still waiting for the applications to open, interested in whether Fema will sharply reduce grants-if so, or his county find the money to continue paying the salary for full-time.
Molly Simon have made research.
