As Los Angeles Burns, Trump Plans to Shift Disaster Burden to States

At the end of last year, many news organizations were asking whether Trump could deny federal disaster aid to states that he deems politically unfriendly. His thoughts on the topic have become abundantly clear in recent weeks. But it’s also becoming apparent that his administration is working on something that would negatively impact all Americans living in areas with climate hazards.

As he tours the sites of recent disasters in North Carolina and California, Trump is setting the stage for a significant reduction in federal disaster aid and mitigation funding. And states should be worried.

Though President Trump disavowed Project 2025 during his campaign, manyorganizations, including CEPR, noted a section that advises “reforming FEMA emergency spending to shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government.” Again, despite distancing himself from the document, 16 of the 26 executive orders that Trump signed on his first day in office mirrored Project 2025 proposals. And now he’s turning toward FEMA.

“The FEMA is getting in the way of everything,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday, adding he’d “rather see the states take care of their own problems.” As recently as today, Trump has even stated that he would sign an executive order to fundamentally overhaul or eliminate FEMA entirely. While Trump does not have the authority to eliminate FEMA outright, he can certainly cut it down to nothing, or use a sympathetic Congress to do his work for him.

Since its creation in 1979 by the late President Carter, FEMA has drawn its fair share of criticisms and controversies — none more significant and deserved than the agency’s response to Hurricane Katrina under George W. Bush. However, FEMA has also provided billions of dollars in housing and rental assistance to survivors and funding to rebuild infrastructure in communities recovering from disasters. Before FEMA, disaster response was piecemeal, requiring Congress to pass bills. The frequency of disasters before 1979 was nothing like what we see today.

States cannot absorb the costs of these disasters, and they don’t have the money to prevent them either. States have long relied on mitigation grants from FEMA and HUD to make communities safer. And in the case of states like California, they have relied on the federal government, in the form of the US Forest Service, to manage forests that fall outside state and private jurisdiction. These parts of the federal government that aim to make the US climate resilient are chronically underfunded.

Congress has been constantly deprioritizing climate resilience and relief, and now that the issue is taking center stage, it is blaming everyone but itself for the lack of preparation. If Trump truly wanted to make America great again, he would prioritize funding for aid, mitigation, and, in extreme cases, community-driven relocation. But instead, he’s removing reports about such efforts from the White House website and setting Americans up for four years of uncertainty and suffering.

This first appeared on CEPR.

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