Trump’s leader for FEMA wins praise, but proposed budget cuts don’t
WASHINGTON — When forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the start of hurricane season in June, more than a few state and local officials were worried by predictions of as many as five major hurricanes.
But the primary concern, officials said, was not just the storms: It was the lack of a leader at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is responsible for coordinating the government’s relief efforts after natural disasters.
Those fears were eased a few weeks later when President Donald Trump’s choice to head FEMA, Brock Long, the former Alabama Emergency Management Agency director, was confirmed by the Senate, 95-4.
While Trump has been criticized for being slow to fill top posts throughout his administration and the experience of several of his choices has been questioned, the selection of Long, state disaster relief officials say, inspires confidence.
“Brock has relationships with state emergency managers across the country. He can put himself in their shoes,” said Art Faulkner, current director of the Alabama agency. “He knows what we go through in dealing with these issues.”
Even with Long leading the agency, FEMA still faces issues that are not related to its leadership. His skill will soon be tested.
The Trump administration has proposed cutting a number of programs and grants at the agency that many cities and states say will leave them unprepared to deal with disasters. And despite Long’s extensive experience as a state emergency manager, the federal agency has yet to face a major disaster under his leadership.
“FEMA is one of the government agencies that has to be on the ball 100 percent of the time — because 99 percent success can still mean disaster,” said Paul M. Rosen, former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration.
President Jimmy Carter created FEMA in 1979 to coordinate the response to disasters that overwhelm the resources of local and state authorities. The agency is also the lead grant-making agency for the Department of Homeland Security, accounting for 98 percent of all funding.
The role of FEMA director is often a low-profile position, but that can change with one major storm. Michael Brown, the former head of the agency, who had spent a decade as the stewards and judges commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association, was named to head the agency by President George W. Bush.
After the government’s poor response to Hurricane Katrina, Brown resigned in disgrace.
The Obama administration appointed Craig Fugate, an experienced emergency manager from Florida, to lead the agency and institute reforms. Fugate was widely credited with helping FEMA regain its credibility.
Lanita Lloyd, president of the International Association of Emergency Managers, a trade group, said Long would continue the work of Fugate.
“We don’t expect to see a drop-off in terms of how FEMA operates under Brock Long,” Lloyd said. “He’s someone we know and trust and will have the agency prepared for whatever disaster might hit.”
This year, FEMA has responded to 56 disaster declarations as varied as tornadoes in the South and flooding in the West.
Still, some emergency management officials said that while they trusted Long, they were concerned about the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts.
In his budget blueprint for 2018, Trump wants to reduce FEMA’S state and local program grants by $600 million. The administration says many of the grants were not authorized by Congress.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security said the administration wanted to encourage states and cities to budget for their own preparedness and shift the cost of paying for disaster preparation and response away from the federal government.
Brian Baker, director of Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for Washington, D.C., said the proposed cuts would cost the capital city millions in funding.
“While I applaud the fact that the Trump administration has put an actual emergency management practitioner in that office, these cuts would cost the District close to $30 million,” Baker said.
Baker said grants were crucial to the city’s efforts to support larger events as well as deal with disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes that have hit the city in recent years.
New York City, Trump’s hometown, would be particularly hard hit by the proposed budget cuts to FEMA.
The office of Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city could lose millions for programs under FEMA, including counterterrorism assistance grants to the New York City Police Department. The Police Department uses the grants for its bomb squad, its dog training, intelligence analysis, active-shooter training and on its equipment to detect radiological and chemical attacks.
The budget also eliminates money for efforts to improve and redraw the nation’s flood maps and cuts about $90 million from the Pre-disaster Mitigation Program. The program provides funding to local communities to move people to safer locations and to help rebuild schools, hospitals and police and fire stations so they can better withstand the impact of hurricanes and coastal storms.
Many of the programs have received bipartisan support. Lawmakers from areas that are frequently struck by natural disasters or are thought to be targets of terrorist attacks are unlikely to support reductions in funding, said Michael Coen, former chief of staff at FEMA in the Obama administration.
“The new FEMA administrator is going to have quite the challenge defending the president’s budget and working with Congress to make sure that there is money for programs that they care about,” Coen said.