Posted on 01/24/2025 10:53:08 AM PST by Red Badger
Key Points
* President Donald Trump is visiting storm-ravaged parts of North Carolina before flying to California to survey damage from the massive fires.
* In Asheville, Trump said he plans to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, so that states pay more for disaster relief and the federal government pays less.
* The economic losses from the Palisades fire and others around Los Angeles are already in the tens of billions of dollars, worsening the state’s existing home insurance crisis.
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media flanked by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, as they arrive to assess recovery efforts and tour areas devastated by Hurricane Helene, at Asheville Regional Airport in Asheville, North Carolina, U.S., Jan. 24, 2025. Leah Millis | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Friday said he plans to take executive action to overhaul — or possibly end — the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, slamming the agency for its response to historic floods in North Carolina.
“I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away,” Trump said at a briefing in Asheville, North Carolina, which was devastated in September by Hurricane Helene.
The president later Friday is set to travel to Los Angeles, which continues to battle wildfires that have ravaged large swaths of the city.
Speaking to reporters on an airport tarmac upon his arrival in Asheville, Trump said, “We’re looking at the whole concept of FEMA.”
“I like, frankly, the concept [that] when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it, meaning the state takes care of it,” he said.
“To have a group of people come in from an area that don’t even know where they’re going, in order to solve immediately a problem is something that never worked for me,” Trump said.
Trump added that additional aid for North Carolina and California should flow directly from the federal government.
“So rather than going through FEMA, it will go through us,” he said.
Trump’s comments on FEMA appear to align with the conservative policy blueprint known as Project 2025, which calls for reforming the agency’s spending to “shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government.”
Trump politicized Helene shortly after it hit the U.S., criticizing then-President Joe Biden’s handling of the federal response and spreading falsehoods about FEMA’s actions.
In January, as Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood was leveled by unprecedented wildfires, Trump sought to pin the blame for the destruction on California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
He also threatened to make federal aid to fight the wildfires contingent on a change in the state’s water policy.
The Biden administration as of Nov. 5 had approved more than $2.7 billion in total FEMA assistance for survivors of Helene and Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida’s west coast less than two weeks after Helene.
The New York Times reported earlier Friday that while some former FEMA leaders agree with Trump that states should be in charge of managing their own disasters, the states themselves tend to want more federal help.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates
You’re fired!
Cut out the middleman. Cut out FEMA. The money could be used by the states to get the job done.
And a lot of good FEMA has done...
Its 20,000 personnel have done well for Deep State.
FEMA was and is there to grow the bureaucracy.
Reorganize it under the National guard system. Every state prep and when a disaster hits all the states in the region responds.
It works very well with the electric utilities when there is a major disaster
Eliminating the middle man (in this case FEMA) usually does improve efficiency and cut costs.
If the best they can do with their billions is provide $750 to people’s whose homes were destroyed and write orders to staff to not help Trump supporters then perhaps they are not really needed.
He’s exactly right. Why should the feds (i.e. us) bail out California for its idiotic lack of fire prevention?
If you want to adopt dangerous policies, by all means. But also accept the consequences.
CNBC: “Trump politicized Helene shortly after it hit the U.S., criticizing then-President Joe Biden’s handling of the federal response and spreading falsehoods about FEMA’s actions.”
CNBC is likely less reliable than the old Pravda and Izvestia.
A very good suggestion.
.
Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, has been on the ground and has some interesting things to say about FEMA.
Typical stuff about them not only not helping people, but stopping those who would.
Real Life with Jack Hibbs Podcast - 33 mins long
Does Your Love Get Dirty?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHoXUp1JU6Q
Meanwhile collect a paycheck for doing virtually nothing when a real disaster hits.
I think Trump will get a lot of support for this idea. The states know best what their people need.
He also said the NC disaster area was getting paid direct from the whitehouse instead of FEMA.
On Friday, October 20th, 2023, the Biden Administration sent a Supplemental Funding Request to the Congress that contains key priorities for the American Jewish community:
$14.3 Billion in Emergency assistance to Israel: This emergency assistance will bolster Israel’s ability to defend herself and replenish vital defense systems, including the Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense programs.
Biden increased Funding for FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP): Vulnerable Jewish communities are in a state of elevated readiness and have already been forced to increase their security measures.
FEMA’s Nonprofit “Security Grant Program” helps ensure the safety and security of Jewish institutions. The increased funding included in Biden’s Supplemental Budget Request will help bolster our Jewish community’s capacity to protect itself at this challenging time.
cont
On Dec. 30, 2024, the Biden Department of Defense (DoD) announced additional security assistance support to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs as part of the surge of security assistance the President directed to put Ukraine in the best possible position. </b>
This includes the authorization of a Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) package, which has an estimated value of $1.25 billion, to provide Ukraine additional capabilities to meet its most urgent needs, including: missiles for air defense; munitions for rocket systems and artillery; and anti-tank weapons.
In addition, DoD announced an approximately $1.22 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package to provide Ukraine with additional air defense, air-to-ground, Unmanned Aerial Systems, and other capabilities to fight Russian aggression.
This is the Biden Administration’s twenty-third aid package and seventy-third tranche of military equipment to be provided from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.
Release
Immediate Release
Biden Administration Announces Additional Security Assistance for Ukraine
Dec. 30, 2024 |
Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced additional security assistance support to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs as part of the surge of security assistance the President directed to put Ukraine in the best possible position.
This includes the authorization of a Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) package, which has an estimated value of $1.25 billion, to provide Ukraine additional capabilities to meet its most urgent needs, including: missiles for air defense; munitions for rocket systems and artillery; and anti-tank weapons.
In addition, DoD announced an approximately $1.22 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package to provide Ukraine with additional air defense, air-to-ground, Unmanned Aerial Systems, and other capabilities to fight Russian aggression.
The capabilities in this announcement include:
• Munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS);
• HAWK air defense munitions;
• Stinger missiles;
• Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (c-UAS) munitions;
• Ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
• 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition;
• Air-to-ground munitions;
• High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs);
• Unmanned Aerials Systems (UAS);
• Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems;
• Tube-launched, Optically guided, Wire-tracked (TOW) missiles;
• Small arms and ammunition and grenades;
• Demolitions equipment and munitions;
• Secure communications equipment;
• Commercial satellite imagery services;
• Medical equipment;
• Clothing and individual equipment; and
• Spare parts, maintenance and sustainment support, ancillary equipment, services, training, and transportation.
This is the Biden Administration’s twenty-third USAI package and seventy-third tranche of equipment to be provided from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.
The United States continues to work together with some 50 Allies and partners through the Ukraine Defense Contact Group and its associated Capability Coalitions to provide the support Ukraine needs to prevail in its fight against Russian aggression.
END IT! FEMA showed their true colors when they skipped homes owned by conservatives... incompetent and MEAN is not a great way for a group to function. Maybe DeSantis would consider this as his next challenge. He knows how to protect all of us living in Florida.
Although FEMA was created under EO, it was further established via statue under Stafford act snd a couple of other statues.
Perhaps FEMA could operate at a minimal level to satisfy US law and any additional money allocated directly by executive to states as needed.
I just saw a discussion about the mission of FEMA on the tube. The original law set up a FEMA office in each state and the FEMA hub in WDC. The state FEMA office is supposed to work with the state pols to identify possible problems and suggest changes. This includes budgeting stand-by funds for disaster recovery. If a disaster happens in a state and the state cannot completely cover the recovery or the cost, the WDC FEMA office is supposed to analyze the situation and provide additional resources primarily writing checks. It is still the state’s responsibility to manage the event as they are closer to the problem, not the Feds.
This has somehow evolved into everyone thinking that their primary disaster backup is the feds, that the feds should provide everything and the states nothing. Local FEMA funding has dropped. This thinking is probably why we hear of fire trucks being sold to Ukraine and firemen being laid off.
Trump wants to tie any federal aid to CA to be conditional. Probably among those conditions will be re-funding the state level FEMA position which I would bet in CA is operating out of a phone booth.
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