Trump Plans to Wind Down FEMA After Hurricane Season Ends

President Donald Trump, in one of his signature moves, announced plans to start “phasing out” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, after the hurricane season. Now, I’ve been warning about this for years. The liberals think you’re too stupid to understand what’s really going on with disaster relief in this country.

The president is planning to distribute disaster relief funds directly from his office. He said, “We’re going to give out less money.”

The president added: “I’d say after the hurricane season we’ll start phasing it out.” The U.S. hurricane season officially began on June 1 and lasts through November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast last month that this year’s season would be above normal with as many as 10 hurricanes.

Trump’s comments were among the most direct to date, indicating his intention to significantly downsize if not outright eliminate FEMA. This is an organization that has an annual budget of around $30 billion and employed more than 20,000 people, including reservists, prior to layoffs earlier this year.

Distributing funds directly from the White House would also mark a departure from current protocols. Under these protocols, FEMA oversees the dissemination of financial aid to the states following the president’s declaration of a disaster. But that’s about to change.

At the briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that FEMA “fundamentally needs to go away as it exists” and that governors were being encouraged to work together to respond to disasters.