WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the wake of the Central Texas flooding, many are raising concerns if cuts to agencies like FEMA could hurt future disaster response.
FEMA and NOAA, which the latter oversees the National Weather Service (NWS), have lost many staff members due to cuts or early retirement programs. The President is also considering eliminating FEMA and instead, restructuring it so that states have more power to respond to natural disasters.
With the Central Texas floods in the national spotlight and many local communities in the Southern Tier still trying to recover from last year’s severe weather, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D- NY) describes cuts to these agencies as a “betrayal”.
“Cuts to FEMA and cuts to staff and cuts to FEMAs budget is really horrific because as you know when a natural disaster happens being able to have people on the ground right away doing their assessments doing everything they can to help you rebuild,” said Sen. Gillibrand. “It’s necessary and we pay our tax dollars to Washington because we expect FEMA to work when its needed.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D- NY) is calling for an investigation into whether staffing shortages at these agencies contributed to the loss of life and property for the deadly Texas flooding. The President maintains staffing cuts did not impact the handling of the incident.
