Ranking Members Thompson and Kennedy Statement on Trump’s Emergency Management Executive Order to Hamper FEMA and Push its Functions onto the States
(WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-NY), Ranking Member of the Emergency Management and Technology subcommittee, released the joint statement below on President Trump’s latest executive order to push the responsibility of emergency management onto the states – regardless of their resources, funding, or expertise:
“President Trump’s latest emergency preparedness executive order clearly has FEMA in its crosshairs. He has been attacking the agency for months – and has consistently lied about its record. This executive order is just the latest step in Trump’s stated goal to dismantle the agency and push the responsibility of its functions onto individual states. It also orders a slew of bureaucratic ‘reviews’ and ‘strategies’ – in addition to the FEMA council he created in January – which we doubt will be impartial and will surely be used by the Administration to justify its plans to abolish FEMA or make it completely ineffective.
“To be clear, the Trump Administration attempting to put the burden of emergency response and recovery on individual states defies logic when the Federal government has extraordinary capabilities, vast resources, and decades of experience. In fact, many states that have received the most assistance from FEMA would not be able to manage one large scale, complex disaster – much less the multiple that some often face at the same time.
“Trump can’t escape the fact that FEMA already works hand in and hand with states and locals when disasters strike – and FEMA gives them wide latitude in how they choose to rebuild after a disaster. Trump should get his facts straight before he further goes down the road of attempting to dismantle FEMA just so he can give more tax cuts to billionaires.”
# # #
Next Article Previous Article