FEMA
Noem’s Disastrous Reign at FEMA
The post-Noem agency is in desperate need of rebuilding.
It’s going to be very difficult for a new DHS head to shift course given the message coming from the White House. But without a change in the direction, a weaker FEMA will increase the country’s vulnerability to the disaster risks posed by an increasingly unruly climate. Noem has done great damage to FEMA, leaving the country more vulnerable to disasters. Trump’s desire to abolish the agency isn’t helping. Among her failings, her damage to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) may not be the worst, but it’s far from the least. Restoring the FEMA will be a major undertaking and a heavy lift in an administration best known for agency destruction.
CONTINUE READINGAnother White House Assault on Federalism
Trump’s Executive Order about rebuilding in LA is a huge federal power grab.
esterday, Trump issued an executive order that attempts to eliminate the need for building permits in the LA burn area. The argument is that the permitting process this slows down the rebuilding that FEMA grants are supposed to assist. he idea seems to be that whenever Congress choses to subsidize an activity, it authorizes agencies to eliminate all state regulations that might be barriers. Supreme Court opinions are full of admonitions against just this kind of assault on state authority, especially in fields like building permits that are a traditional domain of state and local government. And no, this isn’t an area where the President can rely on the Supreme Court’s conservatives. As much as they seem to like presidential authority, the conservative Justices have also shown a strong attachment to federalism.
Yes, Secretary Noem, We Really Do Need FEMA
An advisory committee suggests upgrading FEMA, but Noem still hopes to gut it.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that a special advisory council has recommended that FEMA be strengthened and taken out of DHS. Secretary Noem is unconvinced and seems to be trying to bury the recommendations. She’s wrong. FEMA really is needed, and the reasons tell us a lot about what kinds of reforms make sense. First responders are usually state and local – they’re already nearby – and much of the work of reconstruction is also overseen locally. So why do we need FEMA? Let me count the ways.
CONTINUE READINGSaving Disaster Law From the Imperial Presidency
Trump’s efforts to deconstruct disaster relief have serious legal flaws
In recent days, Trump has said that he won’t provide relief for the LA fires unless California changes its voting laws and its water regulations. And he also suggested that he’d like to abolish FEMA entirely. The first of those proposals seems clearly unconstitutional. The second one is both a terrible idea and beyond his legal authority.
CONTINUE READINGHurricane Milton and this Climate Moment
We’re witnessing the collision of extreme weather, climate science, national news and politics. The question of “Who pays for climate disasters?” is about to become even more important.
When President Biden addressed the nation yesterday from the White House, he warned that Hurricane Milton could be one of the most destructive storms in more than a century, but he stopped short of explaining why — that climate change, fueled by our burning of fossil fuels, is making oceans warmer and storms stronger, capable …
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CONTINUE READINGRescuing FEMA (and ourselves)
FEMA needs to grow in order to handle its work. The need for growth will only get greater as time goes on.
2021 was a year of disasters, with extraordinary heat waves, fires, a string of hurricanes, a cold snap that left Texas in the dark, winter tornados, and torrential rains. FEMA has been left badly overstretched. That’s an urgent problem, and it’s likely a foretaste of the future. This is not just a problem for the …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat Have We Learned from Recent Disasters?
Disasters are getting bigger, badder, and less predictable. We need to adjust.
Hurricanes Harvey and Maria. California wildfires. Superstorm Sandy. The great Texas blackout. The list goes on. These mega-events dramatize the need to improve our disaster response system. The trends are striking: escalating disaster impacts, more disaster clustering, more disaster cascades, and less predictability. We need to up our game. Lisa Grow Sun and I discuss …
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CONTINUE READINGWe’re Going to Need a Much Bigger FEMA
FEMA is built to handle one disaster at a time. That’s not going to work in the future.
“When troubles come, they comes not as single spies but as battalions.” That wisdom goes back to Shakespeare. Yet our disaster response system is keyed to handling single disasters, not clusters of major disasters. That needs to change. This week is a good illustration. We have fires in California that may set records. We have …
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CONTINUE READINGIs a Pandemic a Major Disaster?
Cuomo has asked for major disaster relief. But there’s a serious legal hurdle to that.
Yesterday, I wrote about presidential powers in a pandemic. I mentioned the possibility of declaring the pandemic a major disaster under the Stafford Act. Today, we learned that Gov. Cuomo of New York has made such a request. [Note: two days after this was written, FEMA granted the request.] What does the law have to …
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CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Cliff Villa: Es FEMA El Problema? Hurricane Maria and the Slow Road to Recovery in Puerto Rico
Strolling west on Calle Loiza from the Ocean Park neighborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico, you could miss the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria last September. Here in early May 2018, runners and walkers lap the track at Parque Barbosa while middle-aged men try to keep pace with younger guys on the sheltered basketball court. …
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