Trump signs order to shift disaster preparations from Fema to state and local governments

Old_Joe

Following are excerpts from a current report in the Guardian:

Order calls for revising infrastructure policy to better assess risks instead of ‘all-hazards approach’, White House said

Tue 18 Mar 2025 22.12 EDT

Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order that seeks to shift responsibility for disaster preparations to state and local governments, deepening the president’s drive to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The order, first previewed by the White House on 10 March, calls for a review of all infrastructure, continuity and preparedness and response policies to update and simplify federal approaches. It said “common sense” investments by state and local governments to address risks ranging from wildfires to hurricanes and cyber attacks would enhance national security, but did not detail what they were or how they would be funded.

“Preparedness is most effectively owned and managed at the state, local, and even individual levels, supported by a competent, accessible, and efficient federal government,” the order said. “When states are empowered to make smart infrastructure choices, taxpayers benefit.”

The order calls for revising critical infrastructure policy to better reflect assessed risks instead of an “all-hazards approach”, the White House said in a fact sheet on the order. It creates a “National Risk Register” to identify, describe and measure risk to US national infrastructure and streamlines federal functions to help states work with Washington more easily.

Trump in January ordered a review of FEMA that stopped short of shuttering the country’s lead disaster response agency and a White House official said the latest order was not aimed at closing FEMA.

Rob Moore, the director of the flooding solutions team at the Natural Resources Defense Council, accused the Trump administration of systematically weakening US disaster readiness. “From day one, the Trump administration has been eroding the nation’s capacity to plan for, respond to, and recover from disasters,” Moore told Reuters. “They’ve overseen the dismissal of 1,000 FEMA staff – who won’t be there to respond to a flood or wildfire – and are withholding funding from local and state governments who are doing risk reduction projects and more.“

Anna

Is there something like a ten year total federal expenditures for disasters by state? It would be interesting to see, after FL and CA, which states would need to raise huge amounts of reserves for unforseen events. Many states have laws about spending above revenues.

Also, ummmmm, sales tax only states. What a windfall for those who don't need to spend all our income. Super gets super-er the richer you are. WOW! Who woulda thunk?

Mark

You might have to do a little digging:

Tracking U.S. Federal Disaster Spending: The Disaster Dollar Database

Who gets more disaster aid? Republican states.

What are some key facts and trends about disasters and emergency relief?
"Spending on disaster relief as a share of all government spending
In fiscal year 2020, 0.3% of all federal, state, and local governments spending went toward disaster relief.

Anna

@Mark Thanks, I downloaded and did some sorting on the data but much work to do much with it. OTOH, the map on the page you linked has the by state data for "FEMA IHP & PA, and HUD CDBG-DR, data from September 2003 to January 2025". Interesting - Louisiana, then New York, then Florida, then Texas and finally California. I may look for population to convert to some sort of per capita number for those. Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming are the no income tax states. Just guessing without population data - looks like a problem for three or four of those state workers. (Alaska, Florida, Texas and Washington).