Jacob Ogles
Florida Democrats are sounding alarms that a potential restructuring of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could impact their constituents.
At a meeting of the Florida congressional delegation in Washington, lawmakers pressed disaster response experts on how a push to scale and streamline disaster response could leave residents in a quagmire.
U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Parkland Democrat and a former Florida Division of Emergency Management Director, said he has spoken to sources within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who say the threat of President Donald Trump dismantling FEMA appears very real.
“Listen, I’ve been dialoguing with the White House at the highest levels, along with the folks at Homeland, and this FEMA situation is in way worse shape than you’re aware of,” Moskowitz said.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said last month that she is prepared to eliminate FEMA, and hiring has largely been frozen there, according to reporting by CNN.
Moskowitz filed legislation along with U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a Naples Republican and Trump ally, that would instead elevate FEMA to an independent agency reporting directly to the President. He urged colleagues to advocate for the agency’s preservation.
Every Democrat who attended the delegation hearing expressed concern about whether Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) actions reducing staffing across the executive branch could severely limit the state’s readiness for coming hurricanes.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic Co-Chair of the delegation, pressed National Weather Service Director Ken Graham at the meeting about cuts to multilingual outreach during emergencies in favor of artificial intelligence-generated translations.
She also sought answers about a reduction in weather balloon use due to staffing cuts and the recent cancellation of $750 in grant funding for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities.
“We cannot ignore how many of the tools that we rely on to predict, repair and recover from storms are in serious danger from the Trump White House,” the Weston Democrat said. “Tools under threat swirl around us, just like a hurricane. Ten billion (dollars) in disaster aid has been illegally frozen, and no state has more stalled FEMA awards than Florida.”
Graham, for his part, said the National Weather Service has absorbed some eliminated positions through longtime staff members retiring and taking buyouts. He said Florida’s offices have weathered cuts better than some other parts of the country, and he has little trouble finding Florida in
Democrats were not the only Florida lawmakers with questions about how a FEMA restructuring could impact the state.
U.S. Rep. John Rutherford, a Jacksonville Republican, asked about one possibility of FEMA’s transforming into a federal conduit.
“You probably heard about having FEMA just going to be a funding agency and really leave it up to the states to do all the mitigation,” he said.
Florida Chief Resilience Officer Wesley Brooks told lawmakers that Florida doesn’t depend exclusively on FEMA during disasters and oversees much of the response to hurricanes.
“Certainly, we have a good working relationship with FEMA and utilize resources and help manage those resources and get them faster,” Brooks said.
He noted that Florida has particular challenges such as distributing aid on a peninsula. He stressed that the state government has experience dealing with those challenges, and state agencies constantly navigate changes in the organizational and regulatory environment, and will do the same whatever happens with FEMA.
Mark Wilson, President of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said Florida has done a good job at redirecting its own resources to address disasters immediately after they occur.
“Within a week, we know exactly what to do,” he said of Florida’s disaster response. “The federal government shows up sometimes weeks later, and acts weeks later.”
Wilson also acknowledged that Florida has a strong background in hurricane response, and that states that don’t have the same background may not be so nimble. He noted problems faced by North Carolina last year after Hurricane Helene impacted the state.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat, said it was important that Florida lawmakers universally work to keep FEMA operating. She noted block grant programs, emergency medical assistance and other federal efforts that state and local governments simply can’t afford on their own.
“After living through the worst hurricane season in the Tampa Bay area in our lifetime, I do not know how we can do it without a robust Federal Emergency Management Agency,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Longboat Key Republican, asked federal officials if they yet have any idea what Florida needs to brace for in the next hurricane season.
He noted that his own district saw more damage to beaches and homes on barrier islands from storms impacting the Gulf Coast the last three years than seen in the prior three decades. He recalled that when a storm hit Longboat Key last year, it moved 4 feet of beach band to his house some 500 yards away from the water. Meanwhile, he saw constituents’ homes destroyed on Anna Maria Island that stood through countless storm seasons in the past.
“What’s changed? Because I’ve never seen that in 30 years,” Buchanan said.
Graham said the storms in recent years weren’t necessarily unprecedented but made landfall in areas that evaded severe weather for a long time.
“If you look back at history, what’s really interesting, especially in the Tampa area, it was about a 100-year drought of hurricanes in that area. (The region) lucked out over the years,” Graham said.
“In all the preparedness that I did as Hurricane Center Director, I said it’s just a matter of time. We kept saying that type of thing. It is just, you’ve got so much growth. You’ve got beautiful beaches, and you just happen to have had some really strong storms.”
