Summary
Trump signed an executive order shifting disaster preparedness responsibility from FEMA to state and local governments.
The order calls for reviewing infrastructure policies, creating a National Risk Register, and prioritizing state-led risk reduction.
Critics warn this weakens U.S. disaster readiness, noting Trump’s administration has cut 1,000 FEMA staff and withheld funds from state projects.
Experts fear the order forces states to make costly infrastructure investments without clear federal support, leaving communities more vulnerable to disasters like wildfires and hurricanes.
I’m skeptical that this is a good idea. Disasters happen infrequently. If you have one federal agency, you can move it around to deal with whatever is at issue. If you do it at state level, you need to replicate that so that any given state can have emergency management capability. That’s probably wasteful, because you don’t expect to have a concurrent emergency in all 50 states.
States can cooperate to share infrastructure directly.