Using FEMA and Disaster Relief as a Political Weapon

 

It has happened in the past, even before Donald Trump was elected in 2016. Superstorm Sandy (above left) devastated blue New York and New Jersey in the fall of 2012, inflicting an estimated $70-$100 billion in damage, all told. Enough Republican members of Congress saw the vote for disaster relief as a way to send a clear message to blue states: we do not want to send you a dime. It took New Jersey GOP Governor Chris Christie to convince those state representatives to reverse course, noting how many GOP donors lived in those decimated states… Wall Street mavens with big conservative checkbooks. Still, GOP resistance mounted under the guise of containing budget deficits, notwithstanding earlier disaster relief bills passed with Democratic support for their own GOP-controlled states.

The $51 billion aid package passed, but “Among the 179 Republicans who voted ‘no’ are several lawmakers who were elected in 2010 in the Tea Party wave and who promised to rein in federal spending. There were also prominent committee chairmen, such as Dave Camp of the House Ways and Means Committee, Fred Upton of the Energy Committee and Jeb Hensarling of the Financial Services Committee, who were among the bill's opponents… Another ‘no’ vote: House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the GOP's 2012 vice presidential nominee.” USA Today, January 16, 2013. It could happen again, and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that exempts the president from legal responsibility when there are colorable “official acts” involved; disaster relief weaponization may evolve into a presidential tool, regardless of party affiliation.

But it’s not just the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that has generated Republican wrath. To MAGA, news supporting the reality of climate change, and the disasters that experts prove are the results of that horrific global transition, is an anathema to climate change deniers. Simply, they view meteorologists even mentioning “climate change” in their forecasts as fabricators under the influence of deep state governmental agencies and research from elites seeking to crush GOP operatives and beliefs. Shut off mention of climate change, and the problem is solved. In May, Florida MAGA Governor Ron DeSantis even signed legislation that erases most references to climate change from state law. Go Ronnie! But wait, there’s more.

Last year, for example, Chris Gloninger – chief meteorologist for CBS affiliate KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa – was lambasted after he persisted in linking climate change to regional weather-related disasters. He resigned after an 18-year career, saying he was “bidding farewell to TV to embark on a new journey dedicated to helping solve the climate crisis.” Why? He said a primary motivator was "a death threat stemming from my climate coverage last year and resulting PTSD…"

And where do local weathercasters get their underlying information? The federal government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with global satellites and weather-directed aircraft feeding data into very sophisticated computer systems with remarkable accuracy. The November 3rd NBC News reported the obvious: “FEMA and NOAA … have become increasingly politicized in recent years despite the offices’ history of remaining above the fray. But with natural disasters fueled by climate change now regularly slamming the U.S. — this year has already seen 24 weather events that each caused at least $1 billion in damage — the agencies have taken on a greater role. And with it, they’ve become a target for some conservatives who are skeptical of climate change and want to slash government budgets.”

To MAGA elected representatives, including Trump during his presidency, federal disaster relief is a political decision, even when the culprit may just be the federal government itself. Under the guise of budgetary prudence, MAGA is perfectly willing to cut taxes for the wealthiest (which almost always results in a massive budget deficit), but stuff like “forest maintenance” on federal land, exclusively controlled by the US Department of Interior, is expendable. It’s easier to blame blue states and their forested lands for failing to fix their own neighboring forests.

But whether it comes from a presidential mandate or a MAGA-dominated Congress, we seem to live in an era where jurisdictions controlled by the opposition party, even where the tax dollars from those states exceed federal benefits received, face the political wrath of the party in power. As Alex Wigglesworth, writing for the November 2nd Los Angeles Times explains: “Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut off federal disaster aid for California’s wildfires if he returns to the White House, most recently at a campaign rally in [California’s Coachella Valley] and in remarks at his golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes.

“Such a loss of federal funds would be a devastating blow to a state where wildfires have grown larger and more destructive in part due to climate change. A single severe fire season can rack up tens of billions of dollars in damage, firefighting costs and economic losses. The prospect of losing disaster aid has state officials and politicians mulling contingency plans… ‘We’re going to take care of your water situation, force it down his throat, and we’ll say: Gavin [Newsom], if you don’t do it, we’re not giving any of that fire money that we send you all the time for all the fire, forest fires that you have,’ Trump said at [that Coachella mid-October] …

“The threats appear to be founded. Presidents have an extraordinary amount of discretion when it comes to disaster aid, which Trump reportedly wielded as a political cudgel during his presidency… He initially refused to approve federal aid to California for wildfires in 2018 [above right] until a National Security Council staffer showed him that Orange County had a dense concentration of supporters, according to a report from Politico’s E&E News. Trump also ignored a 2020 request for aid for Washington state fires amid a feud with Gov. Jay Inslee, with the funds greenlighted only when President Biden took office months later, the outlet reported.” But to be perfectly clear, the power to block FEMA and NOAA funding or to pare or refuse disaster relief can be forced by either the President or a reluctant Congress. And MAGA has often stated that it is not the party for all Americans, just their loyalists.

I’m Peter Dekom, and welcome to the dis-United States of America where helping your neighbor with a different party affiliation is increasingly “yesterday’s news,” a very, very un-Christian notion.