Improve FEMA, don’t eliminate federal disaster relief

FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) was created in 1979 to coordinate the response to disasters that overwhelm the resources of state and local governments. Linn County knows from the floods of 2008 and the derecho of 2020 that FEMA support is critical to effective long-term recovery.

Government works best when all levels of government collaborate. I had the privilege to serve on FEMA’s National Advisory Council from 2013-2019 (now all National Advisory Councils have been essentially fired). While serving on the FEMA National Advisory Council as a local elected official, I advocated for the perspective of local government and ways we could build better response, policy and partnerships. I worked with several FEMA Administrators. Brock Long the first FEMA administrator under President Donald Trump in 2016 was a great advocate for improving processes and making changes to benefit all levels of disaster response and recovery.

There is always room for improvement, but it is important not to break something until you actually understand how it works. The Federal government provides aid that is overseen by the state and implemented at the local level. FEMA brings resources to respond and recover from disasters that many states and local governments simply don’t have — including both money and staff. The devil is always in the details.

One thing that has never occurred previously in granting disaster assistance is political requirements. Disaster assistance has always been granted based on a formula driven by damage estimates and population — hence larger states may be required to have more extensive damage to gain assistance, or smaller states may not get assistance due to smaller disasters that are nonetheless significant to that community. Sometimes the requirements are challenging to folks outside the realm of emergency management, but the requirements are based upon numbers not assumptions.

I am troubled by the new Trump administration and some members of Congress suggesting that politics may be required to trigger disaster aid. Further, suggestions to get rid of FEMA before having a clear understanding of what might replace it is a poor way to set up our communities and states for success in responding to and recovery from disaster. Limiting federal support in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina along with California would only be compounding the disasters of hurricanes, floods, and fires. Anyone who has been through a disaster knows that the challenges demand a clear and effective response driven by collaboration between federal, state and local government.

I encourage the leadership of the new Trump administration and congressional members to review past disaster response in their states. Find out how the system might be improved before doing away with it or putting political obstacles and barriers in the way of response and recovery. Ask members of the now disbanded National Advisory Council for their advice on how FEMA might be improved.

Disasters occur with more frequency now and are having larger impacts. We need the economies of all the disaster impacted states to recover for the benefit of our nation. Most importantly, the human factor of people who want to assist their neighbors and communities by pulling together to help each other without regard to politics is an example of what is good about us. Please let us do what we can to foster collaboration in disaster response and recovery. Please let us support a system that is effective while remembering those who have been impacted — the next disaster may be coming our way as the citizens of Linn County and the state of Iowa know all too well.

Former Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston is past president of the National Association of Counties 2013-2014 and chaired the National Academy of Sciences Resilient America Roundtable, 2015-2019.