Florida Democrats issue FEMA warning 20 years after Katrina
TAMPA - "America, you are in danger," said State Rep. Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville).
For one, in appointing David Richardson to be the acting head of FEMA, Trump went against a post-Katrina rule that all FEMA administrators must have disaster experience.
And two, they argue that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is breaking the law in pledging to review all contracts of a certain size, insisting it could slow down the response.
The $1 billion FEMA program called BRIC (Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities) is slated to end.
"We see additional layers of administrative burden that have been put in place that are slowing down the ability to move those resources before they've been asked for to make sure that we're not losing time," said Deanne Criswell, the former administrator of FEMA.
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Their complaints are echoed by a six-point letter publicly signed by 35 FEMA employees who are insisting that congress make FEMA a cabinet-level department, and that FEMA employees be blocked from politically motivated firings.
They are worried the response to the Texas flooding, that saw dozens of children die, is both foreshadowing the quality of future responses, and is an echo of Hurricane Katrina.
"We can't go back to the way it was 20 years ago," said Criswell.
The backstory:
The Trump Administration has created a FEMA review council, and has at times suggested either ending FEMA altogether or converting the program into block grants that go to each state.
The governor said in February that block grants could be a good approach, given, in his view, the state can spend money and dispatch help more quickly than FEMA can.
He points to the state's responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
"That money will go further than it currently does at greater amounts going through FEMA's bureaucracy," DeSantis said in February. "So that's what he's talking about doing, and we would be able to administer this so much quicker."
Reports say more than 2,000 employees have left FEMA since the second Trump Administration began, which is about a third of the agency's staff.
Republicans who want to see FEMA reformed say the agency has been weaponized by Democrats in the past, and cited an incident in Highlands County where one worker said she was told not to help people who lived at homes with Trump signs.
READ: FEMA's new flood maps put parts of Clearwater in flood zone for first time
What's next:
The belief is that resources can be brought to the people who need it much more quickly if states are in charge.
The FEMA review council is going to make recommendations for how best to move forward, with some members saying they hope to mend FEMA, not end it.
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The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Evan Axelbank.