A New Approach to Disaster Relief: FEMA's Controversial Plan
Disaster aid eligibility may undergo tightening, commencing with the upcoming hurricane season, as per discussions among Trump administration officials.
The Trump administration's emergency management team is brainstorming a set of reforms that could make it considerably harder for communities to secure federal aid following natural disasters. This move is in line with President Donald Trump's executive order, which aims to shift more responsibility for disaster response and recovery from the federal government to the states.
Cameron Hamilton, the acting FEMA administrator and a Trump appointee, has drafted a memo detailing a series of proposals that could result in fewer emergency declarations being approved by the President and reduced federal assistance for communities hit by natural calamities.
Such a shift right before the peak season for natural disasters in the US could create trouble for states that are financially unprepared and for the millions of Americans who face the brunt of disasters every year.
Key among the proposals is raising the threshold for states to qualify for public assistance, effectively quadrupling the extent of damage a community must suffer to receive federal aid.
The memo, addressed to an official from the White House Office of Management and Budget, also suggests decreasing the proportion of recovery costs that the federal government would cover, limiting the selection of facilities eligible for assistance, and rejecting all major disaster declarations for snowstorms.
Hamilton's memo states, "The primary purpose of this memorandum is to identify short-term actions to rebalance FEMA's role in disasters before the start of the 2025 hurricane season." This initiative is part of the administration's broader effort to significantly downsize the disaster relief agency and cut federal costs for disasters.
At this point, there's no clear evidence that FEMA or the White House is implementing the reforms suggested in Hamilton's proposal. CNN has reached out to the White House Office of Management and Budget, FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
While reducing the federal government's burden is not without its supporters, some are concerned that the changes proposed are too radical, too quickly.
"Is it going in a direction that it needs to go? Yeah, I think so. But going there immediately is going to be very painful," stated Craig Fugate, former FEMA Administrator under the Obama administration, referring to the proposed changes.
Eliminating Small Disaster Declarations
When a state applies for a major disaster declaration, FEMA uses a metric called the Per Capita Indicator (PCI) to assess the severity of the damage and guide its recommendation to the President regarding whether to approve public assistance.
Hamilton's proposal aims to increase the PCI from its current level of $1.89 to $7.56, thereby concentrating federal funds on large-scale disasters and "eliminating small disaster declarations."
Hamilton argues this change would "reduce Federal costs by hundreds of millions annually" and better reflect inflation and current economic conditions, given these thresholds have remained largely unchanged for decades.
Previous administrations have discussed raising the PCI, which was introduced in 1986 at $1 and set at $1.35 in 2011. A 2011 government report classified the indicator as "artificially low" due to its modest growth not adequately reflecting increases in personal income and inflation. According to this report, the indicator would have been $3.57 in 2011, given these factors were taken into account.
State emergency managers told CNN that a thresholds increase of the scale proposed by Hamilton would pose significant problems when future disasters strike.
"That's a massive increase," said Karina Shagren, communications director for the Washington Military Department. "We're fully anticipating that states are going to have to take on a larger burden to respond to emergencies. We just need some clarity. We're trying to develop a path forward without really knowing what the path looks like."
Disaster Declarations Denied Across States
It remains unclear whether the memo and the high threshold it proposes are tied to recent White House denials of major disaster declarations for some states, such as Arkansas, Washington, and Kentucky.
Even red states have been denied assistance. Arkansas GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' request for individual and public assistance following severe storms and tornadoes in March was denied by the Trump administration. The tornado had devastated rural Arkansas, destroying homes, churches, and businesses in towns like Cave City, leaving three people dead.
Cave City resident Irma Carrington, owner of Crystal River Cave Tours, felt frustrated by the lack of federal help for the area. "I would not be too happy with our government if they don't step in and step up when we need it the worst," Carrington told CNN. "Our whole town has been affected. Our people pay taxes like everyone else. I don't understand why we're not getting it - I would think we've had plenty of damages."
- The FEMA administrator, Cameron Hamilton, has proposed a policy that, if implemented, could lead to fewer emergency declarations being approved annually, denying federal aid to communities hit by natural disasters.
- One of Hamilton's proposals is to raise the threshold for states to qualify for public assistance, effectively quadrupling the extent of damage a community must suffer to receive federal aid, a move that could eliminate small disaster declarations.
- Hamilton argues that this change would reduce federal costs by hundreds of millions annually and better reflect inflation and current economic conditions. However, state emergency managers expressed concerns about the potential problems this increase might cause when future disasters strike.
- The memo, which suggests several bipartisan reforms to disaster relief, comes amid increasing scrutiny on the administration's handling of disaster relief, with some states, such as Arkansas, seeing their recent disaster declarations denied.
