From The Hill: Trump wants to make natural disaster victims a state problem
With weather catastrophes becoming more common in the United States these days, communities have counted on two facts.

“First, the federal government has their backs. When state and local resources are insufficient for disaster response and recovery, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) arrives to help. That has been true since President Jimmy Carter created the agency in 1979.

Second, FEMA’s help will be frustrating. Federal assistance will never arrive quickly enough, last long enough, or provide enough resources for people who are traumatized, homeless, without possessions, uninsured and uprooted from schools, neighborhoods and social networks. FEMA’s job is often thankless, but it’s always needed.

However, disaster victims may not be able to count on FEMA much longer. President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have indicated they want the agency to “go away.” More recently, Noem said she will “reorient” the agency. Trump has appointed her to co-chair a FEMA Review Council to “streamline” FEMA so it “delivers rapid, efficient, and mission-focused relief to Americans in need.”

But the administration is not waiting; Trump dismissed the acting head of FEMA last week. He and Noem have pulled billions of dollars out of the agency’s programs to help communities become more disaster resilient, even though the World Economic Forum says effective adaptation strategies can deliver an investment return of $43 per dollar spent. The government says it will no longer track the growing number and cost of big weather disasters.

Trump has also decimated climate science and forecasting at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Last month he dismissed 400 volunteer scientists who analyze and periodically report on anticipated climate impacts in each U.S. region.

Everyone agrees that FEMA, and federal disaster programs generally, need reform. More than 60 disaster programs are scattered across more than 30 federal entities. In recent years, stakeholders and expert organizations have flooded the zone with ideas to improve the government’s disaster responses. The Review Council can benefit from recommendations by the Association of State Floodplain Managers, Harvard Law School, Pew Charitable Trusts, Brookings, the Government Accountability Office, FEMA’s planners and others.”