will states assume fema's role?
There is an excellent article at NPR, Trump wants states to handle disasters. States aren't prepared I recommend it to your reading.
Given that the not yet appointed council that is to review the missions and functions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has not met, it can be hard to predict which way things might go. I’ve spoken to a number of former FEMA officials and read as many articles as possible on the future of FEMA that I can find. Here’s my best guess on “what might happen” to FEMA moving forward.
FEMA will remain as an entity and stay in the Department of Homeland Security. They are the DHS grant making arm and to do away with them would cause other ramifications. Remember all the COVID grants!
National Continuity of Government (COG) and Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) is led by FEMA. Another reason FEMA should not go away totally.
Public Assistance (PA) the money that goes to governments and other organizations will be radically changed. Some form of block grants will be established that gives the money to states in one big sum for them to administer. Craig Fugate, a former FEMA Administer suggested just consolidating all the project worksheets to lighten the administrative load for FEMA and the States. We’ll have to see how dramatic a change they make.
Individual Assistance (IA) will either stay with FEMA or again, be passed down to states. This would perhaps be the hardest piece for states to pickup in times of disaster. It was noted in the article that for two events FEMA was getting 500,000 calls a day. None of the states have this capacity. I would guess that FEMA could retain this mission, but the staffing would need to remain robust for FEMA or the mission of administering tens of thousands of applications will fail in the future.
The pre-disaster funding that states have gotten to directly support their emergency management programs will be eliminated. If the thought is to put the burden back on states, this is the most rational step that could be taken. States and local jurisdictions will fight this mightily, since funding for personnel staffing is one of the backbone components of this funding.
I’d say that mitigation grants are “up in the air.” Who knows what will happen to them, but I don’t think it will be a project-by-project solution if they remain. Maybe a block grant for those too.
Climate change is out!
The requirement to “build back better” is out.
The politization of Presidential Declarations is likely. Based on how many other aspects of the White House and the President are using administrative powers to award their friends and punish their enemies.
We will have to see what the end result is with many twists and turns yet to come.
