Trump’s plan to dismantle FEMA hits stumbling block after Texas floods

The Trump administration has shifted from criticizing the federal emergency management agency to proposing its overhaul, while others argue that previous budget cuts contributed to the tragedy.

U.S. President Donald Trump's defense of the federal response to the catastrophic floods that devastated Texas last July 4 has been consistent, enthusiastic, and - for those who remember his reactions to natural disasters in the past - perhaps surprising. "I admire you and consider you heroes," he told the officials who guided him during his visit to Kerr County, the epicenter of the floods that have so far left 134 dead and 101 missing. That same day, he approved the extension of the major disaster declaration to eight other Texas counties so they could receive direct federal aid to recover and rebuild.

Just a few weeks earlier, the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - and therefore, those federal aid efforts- appeared uncertain. FEMA director, Cameron Hamilton, had been fired in May. In fact, since Trump returned to the White House, about a quarter of the agency's staff had lost their jobs. The effort to wind down the agency was happening in full view. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, who oversees the agency, spelled out the plan bluntly in March: "We're going to eliminate FEMA." Now, faced with questions about whether the cuts contributed to the tragedy in Texas, the Trump administration has begun to backtrack.

On Sunday, in an interview on NBC, Noem softened her tone: "I think the president recognizes that FEMA should not exist the way that it always has been. It needs to be redeployed in a new way, and that's what we did."

A few days earlier, Russell Vought - director of the small but powerful Office of Management and Budget and a fierce defender of federal cuts, even more so than Elon Musk - struck a more conciliatory note. "We want FEMA to work well," he told the press.

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