The Trump Administration has come into its second term with a full and complete understanding of how broken the system is. We have all witnessed the weaponization of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the gross mismanagement of many other agencies. And this includes what may be considered the poster child of a broken bureaucracy – the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Trump's push to dismantle FEMA says perhaps more on the Trump administration's views on the role of the federal government, specifically its role in helping states respond to natural disasters, than any other.
FEMA is an agency within the Department of Homeland Security. President Jimmy Carter created the agency by two Executive Orders on April 1, 1979. The agency's original and primary purpose was to coordinate the response to disasters in the country, specifically those that overwhelmed local and state authorities.
FEMA's unraveling began to show after Hurricane Katrina hit the western Gulf Coast, devastating southern Louisiana and nearly wiping out coastal Mississippi. Over 1300 people died and over 600 remain missing. Biloxi today looks nothing like it did prior to the hurricane. And many of those deaths happened AFTER the arrival of FEMA!
Charities from across the country like the Red Cross, America's Second Harvest, Amateur Radio Emergency Service, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Salvation Army, Oxfam, Common Ground Collective, Burners Without Borders, Emergency Communities, Habitat for Humanity, Catholic Charities, Direct Relief, Service International, A River of Hope, the Mormons, and many others religious and secular provided aid and relief. $4.25 billion in donations was raised from the American public. But, those relief organizations were not allowed into New Orleans proper for several days after the storm because of safety concerns. They were all ready within hours – not days or weeks. Nevertheless, some smaller organizations and individuals ignored the blockade and provided some early and desperately needed relief. Two privately chartered planes from FasterCures evacuated 200 patients from Charity Hospital in New Orleans, which was severely damaged and suffering from power issues.
FEMA was supposed to be coordinating all of it. It's there mandate and their job. And despite pre-positioning of equipment and personnel, they took over a week to begin. Who can't recall the images of thousands of people attempting to survive in the Louisiana Superdome? And don't forget the thousands of unused 'FEMA trailers' sitting in fields post-Katrina. Much of that inventory was eventually sold off unused at government auctions for pennies on the dollar. FEMA's director would resign due to FEMA's corporate incompetence after that fiasco two decades ago. It clearly hasn't gotten any better.
Today, FEMA is a bloated, inefficient, plodding agency whose effectiveness has dropped exponentially as the agency has grown. I was in western North Carolina the week after Hurricane Helene roared through. In that area west of Asheville along the Pigeon River FEMA was nowhere to be seen until the last days of Week 2. And they were clearly NOT managing, but rather controlling things - or attempting to do so.
President Trump realizes that any federal agency will do all it can to expand and increase its mission (i.e. “mission creep”) in order to justify its existence and to build its bureaucratic power. FEMA’s original mission is in its name - Federal Emergency MANAGEMENT Agency. It was supposed to be a management organization whose job it was to coordinate emergency services after major disasters and events. It was to be a clearinghouse to ensure a minimum of overlap and to make sure that resources from local, regional, state, national, and private agencies and groups are used in the most effective manner. Instead, they have become a provider of services. But, they sadly don't do it very well and end up wasting federal tax dollars or worse causing the waste of privately donated funds.
FEMA has outgrown its mandate and its usefulness has atrophied. Whether it is thousands of unused ‘FEMA trailers’ or giant ‘FEMA camps’ for its workforce to live comfortably in North Carolina while local disaster victims struggle to live in flimsy tents with no running water as winter came on, FEMA has become an example of what is worst in the Federal government. And local and state governments have seen the problem. They have set up their own agencies who do things far better. And they do.
Trump understands this. And unlike federal bureaucrats, Washington swamp-rat politicians, and previous presidents, Trump is determined to eliminate the massive waste and inefficiency that is the heart of the US government.
FEMA’s time is over. And it has been for twenty years.
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