My state of Vermont is still recovering from two catastrophic floods in the past two years. That’s why I agree with President Trump that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is broken and needs serious reform if it is to meet local communities’ long-term recovery needs.
But to do away with it completely would be a disaster for red and blue states alike.
On Friday, while visiting victims of September’s Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, Mr. Trump said he was considering “getting rid of FEMA.” He now reportedly plans to sign an executive order as a step toward reshaping FEMA, which could eliminate the agency.
FEMA helps communities before, during and after disasters. The agency’s immediate disaster response — in the midst of a flood, a wildfire, tornado or other disaster — is crucial. FEMA helps Americans in times of chaos and crisis, and does it well. It is at work in Southern California helping people to recover from the devastating fires, something the president surely saw during his recent visit.
In July 2023, Vermont experienced torrential rain, which led to catastrophic flooding and landslides. Homes, farms and businesses were destroyed. Roads, rail lines, dams, bridges, wastewater plants and the post office of our capital city, Montpelier, were washed out. In July 2024, exactly one year later to the day, Vermont was again hit with brutal flooding.
FEMA’s emergency response was critical in the immediate aftermath of both floods. Emergency relief workers, in coordination with a volunteer network and state and local leaders, surged into our communities. Together, they rescued people trapped in their homes, provided displaced Vermonters with water, food, supplies and temporary shelter, and went door to door to start the recovery process. We were grateful for President Joe Biden’s quick assistance, and the immediate attention and visit to Vermont of the FEMA administrator, Deanne Criswell.
What needs to change is the agency’s long-term recovery process, which kicks in months after the floodwaters recede. There is far too much delay and bureaucracy. Disaster victims in Vermont feel it, as do disaster victims in North Carolina. More control, leadership and resources must be given to local governments to ensure that disaster recovery efforts are implemented in a timely way.
Many homeowners in Vermont have struggled to get answers from FEMA, stuck in endless feedback loops after they applied to the Individual Assistance program, which helps secure permanent housing and other needs. Some Vermonters are still paying mortgages on homes they watched float down the river while they wait for a buyout from the agency.
FEMA’s Public Assistance program helps communities address infrastructure recovery needs, including washed-out roads, bridges and wastewater plants. In seeking help, town officials in Vermont have faced administrative hassles and extraordinary turnover among the FEMA staff that manages approvals for these projects.
One of the hardest-hit communities, Ludlow, was assigned eight different program delivery managers in a little over a year. And that wasn’t unique. Each time a new one took over, towns had to file their paperwork all over again. New managers provided different, often-conflicting, guidance.
FEMA asked one town to calculate the cubic volume of washed-out road before agreeing to pay for it to be rebuilt. Another town that experienced a total loss of its wastewater treatment facility was told it couldn’t buy a new generator because FEMA would pay only to rent one. Months later, a different FEMA manager told the town it needed to purchase a new generator for the plant immediately. Towns have borrowed millions of dollars at high interest rates waiting for project approvals that were slow or frozen, in part because of budget constraints caused by Congress’s slow action in replenishing the agency’s Disaster Relief Fund.
Administrative costs have dramatically outpaced the distribution of disaster aid in Vermont. For every dollar FEMA spent on disaster recovery for the 2023 flood victims, it spent nearly $2 on administrative costs. In response, I wrote legislation that would audit FEMA’s budget.
This ineffectiveness has led to an erosion of trust, both in FEMA and in the federal government. Local leaders should have more control and more responsibility. We have energy, effort, resources and talent in our own communities.
No state or municipality — not Vermont, North Carolina or California — has the capacity to respond on its own. Climate change will continue to worsen and communities across America will feel the pain of weather crises. Climate denialism and policies by the new administration that roll back progress made in the past four years will only exacerbate this problem.
That makes it all the more urgent for the federal government to show up in a time of crisis and not play politics with its response. All Americans deserve to know that Washington will have their back when disaster strikes. FEMA was one of President Jimmy Carter’s legacy achievements. Today, it employs more than 22,000 people, including more than 12,500 members in its emergency-response work force, a record. We owe it to Mr. Carter to improve FEMA, not tear it apart only weeks after his passing.
If President Trump wants to come to the table in good faith to reform FEMA’s broken long-term recovery efforts, I’ll work with him. I stand ready to work with Republican and Democratic legislators to help our fellow Americans hammered by natural disasters.
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