Florida Democrat: FEMA 'is going to fail this summer'

(The Hill) - Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) warned on Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is ill prepared for hurricane season and “is going to fail this summer.”

In remarks at a House Rules Committee hearing Wednesday, Moskowitz said the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) steep budget cuts and grant pauses have made FEMA inefficient and risk sending hurricane-prone states into bankruptcy if they don’t get approval for federal aid when the next storm hits.

“Remember that DOGE? Remember the E at the end of DOGE? The word efficiency?” Moskowitz asked in his remarks. “Nothing at FEMA has been made more efficient.”

“In fact, I would tell you that the secretary of Homeland Security has turned FEMA into the Newark airport, OK? It is going to fail this summer,” Moskowitz continued, referring to the staffing and logistical issues at the international airport in New Jersey.

“And so look, there’s no doubt that FEMA needed reform, but what they’ve done at Homeland is they’ve taken something that needed help and they broke it further,” Moskowitz said.

He noted that some of the most at-risk states are areas represented by Republican leadership — such as Louisiana, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R) are from.

“Louisiana goes bankrupt without FEMA, when there’s a hurricane that comes in from the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of America, comes right into Louisiana, they’re bankrupt,” Moskowitz said, noting the same is true for Alabama and Mississippi, especially when tornadoes strike.

“Those states go bankrupt without FEMA. And yet, I don’t see my Republican colleagues calling out the administration on how we’re going to save FEMA and reform it,” he added.

In recent months, the White House has taken numerous steps to strip funds from FEMA, which has long been a target for some Republicans.

FEMA ended its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, intended to help communities prepare for natural disasters, labeling the program “wasteful and ineffective.” The agency canceled applications from 2020 and 2023 and reabsorbed unclaimed funds. FEMA has also frozen nearly $10 billion in disaster aid for nonprofits pending review.

Moskowitz, who served as Florida’s director of Emergency Management before joining Congress, noted funding freezes have led to delays in payments to vendors and states, disrupting disaster-prevention efforts.

Moskowitz accused Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem of failing to warn the president of the impact of some of the cuts that the department is making.

“There’s dramatic improvement that needs to be done at FEMA. But I’m deeply concerned at what’s happened at Homeland, and I don’t think the president is aware of the current condition that the secretary has put him [in] and the men and women that work there and the states that are going to go to FEMA and rely on them to help them in their time of need,” Moskowitz said. “And those resources are going to come slower.”

He pointed to his background in emergency management.

“Let me remind you, I did this for a living, for a Republican governor. I worked for Ron DeSantis for two and a half years, took my political hat off, so I’m not giving you partisan coverage. I’m giving you the current state of affairs in an agency that has been absolutely destroyed.”

The Hill has reached out to Homeland Security and FEMA for comment.