{"id":8982,"date":"2025-05-08T14:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T14:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/congress-counters-trump-with-massive-fema-restructuring-plan\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T14:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T14:01:07","slug":"congress-counters-trump-with-massive-fema-restructuring-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/congress-counters-trump-with-massive-fema-restructuring-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress counters Trump with massive FEMA restructuring plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A bipartisan group of House members is drafting a sweeping bill to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency \u2014 and in some cases expand its services \u2014 in an effort to head off President Donald Trump’s threats to shrink or abolish the agency.<\/p>\n

Under the bill, FEMA could pay for major repairs to homes damaged in disasters, instead of only temporary fixes. The agency would be able to penalize states that don\u2019t try to mitigate disasters, according to a detailed summary obtained by Blue Light News\u2019s E&E News.<\/p>\n

The bill also would remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and make it an independent agency reporting directly to the president. The measure, which is described as a discussion draft, was written by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Sam Graves, Republican of Missouri, and Washington Rep. Rick Larsen, the panel’s top Democrat. <\/p>\n

Committee staffers explained the bill Wednesday in a private virtual conference with about 100 experts. E&E News listened in.<\/p>\n

Committee Republicans and Democrats expect to publicly release the discussion draft Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration has talked about finding a better way to support states taking the lead\u201d in disaster response, Johanna Hardy, a subcommittee Republican staff director, said at the conference. The draft legislation by the committee \u201cwill help achieve those goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making FEMA a Cabinet-level agency \u201cwill better enable FEMA to support states and local governments,\u201d Hardy said.<\/p>\n

The bill could become Congress\u2019 principal effort to try to influence the future of FEMA, which Trump has started cutting and intends to further weaken or abolish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that the committee is moving on this is promising,\u201d Manann Donoghoe, a senior research associate at Brookings Metro, said in an interview after listening to the virtual conference.<\/p>\n

One cut by Trump \u2014 the cancellation of a multibillion-dollar grant program for states to protect against natural disasters \u2014 has drawn widespread and bipartisan opposition. Trump has discussed abolishing or shrinking FEMA and created an expert council to recommend changes.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, as House Transportation Committee staffers were explaining their bill, FEMA acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton bluntly told a House Appropriations subcommittee that the agency should not be abolished.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not believe it is in the best interests of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,\u201d Hamilton said in response to a question by the House Appropriations Committee\u2019s top Democrat, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving said that, I\u2019m not in a position to make a decision,\u201d Hamilton added. \u201cThat is a conversation that should be had between the president of the United States and this governing body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the hearing, Hamilton said the administration \u201cis looking at policies and initiatives that encourage greater state participation\u201d in disaster recovery.<\/p>\n

Trump has been adamant about downsizing FEMA and giving states more responsibility for disaster recovery.<\/p>\n

But the House bill would expand FEMA spending in at least one area, according to the 2,500-word summary and Transportation Committee staffers.<\/p>\n

The bill would remove restrictions that limit FEMA to paying only for minor home repairs after a disaster and would create a \u201cpermanent repair program of owner-occupied homes,\u201d the summary says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would expand FEMA\u2019s authority to continue to repair homes \u2026 past the point of habitability,\u201d Lauren Gros, a Democratic committee staffer, told the conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned FEMA was spending upwards of $300,000 on travel trailers\u201d to temporarily house disaster victims, Gros said. \u201cWhy spend so much money on a temporary solution instead of a permanent solution?\u201d<\/p>\n

Under federal law, FEMA currently gives households only enough money \u2014 usually a few thousand dollars \u2014 to make their home habitable after a disaster. The policy has forced many households without homeowners insurance to live in temporary housing for long periods.<\/p>\n

The bill also would urge FEMA to give \u201cgreater weight\u201d to events that damage \u201ceconomically distressed \u2026 or rural areas\u201d in deciding whether to recommend that a president declare a disaster, the summary says. Presidents have the final and sole decision on whether to declare a damaged area a \u201cmajor disaster,\u201d entitling states to federal aid for cleanup and recovery.<\/p>\n

FEMA typically pays 75 percent of disaster-recovery costs for states, which pay the remaining 25 percent.<\/p>\n

But the House proposal would \u201cincorporate cost-share sliding\u201d that would let FEMA reimburse only 65 percent of costs \u201cif a state were not doing appropriate mitigation measures,\u201d Logan de La Barre-Hays, a Republican staffer on the House Transportation Committee, told the virtual conference.<\/p>\n

FEMA could increase its reimbursement to 85 percent for states making significant improvements in their vulnerability to disasters.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how much effect the bill would have if it became law.<\/p>\n

Presidents have almost complete discretion over disasters, including when to approve federal aid and how much to give.<\/p>\n

Many of the 51 sections in the bill summary simply authorize FEMA or a president to take certain action.<\/p>\n

Donoghoe of Brookings said \u201ca lot of good ideas\u201d are contained in the bill, which along with Trump\u2019s executive orders \u201chave put a spotlight on disaster-management reform in a way there hasn\u2019t been in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other people who watched the virtual presentation said the federal government needs to revise not just FEMA but its entire response to major disasters, which encompasses numerous departments.<\/p>\n

But, Donoghoe added, \u201cI have reservations about what can be accomplished in the current legislative environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bipartisan group of House members is drafting a sweeping bill to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency \u2014 and in some cases expand its services \u2014 in an effort to head off President Donald Trump’s threats to shrink or abolish the agency. Under the bill, FEMA could pay for major repairs to homes damaged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}