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unidentified
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| Welcome back to Washington Journal. | ||
| We're talking about FEMA, the cuts there, hurricane season, disaster response. | ||
| We've got with us former FEMA Chief of Staff Michael Cohen. | ||
| Welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Gigi. | |
| So explain to us your previous roles with FEMA and your experience with disaster management. | ||
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unidentified
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Sure. | |
| Recently, I was chief of staff to Administrator Deanne Criswell at FEMA during the Biden administration. | ||
| I was also chief of staff for Craig Fugate during the Obama administration at FEMA. | ||
| I started my career in emergency management working for James Lee Witt during the Clinton administration at FEMA. | ||
| Well, as you know, hurricane season has kicked off. | ||
| It started this past Sunday, and it goes through November. | ||
| Do you think FEMA is ready for that? | ||
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unidentified
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I think FEMA has robust capability. | |
| I don't think they're as ready as they have been in the past. | ||
| I believe with staff departures, morale, you know, cuts to training and travel has reduced FEMA's coordination with states and local governments. | ||
| There was an internal document that was released recently where FEMA said that they're not ready. | ||
| What do you make of that? | ||
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unidentified
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I think that that's them being realistic of what their challenges are for this season and them preparing their leadership for the challenges ahead and directing and presenting to their leadership that they need direction on what is expected of them based on the reduced capability at the agency, | |
| and letting the new execut, the new acting administrator, know up front, you know, this is not going to be easy. | ||
| I want to talk about the acting administrator, but first, if you can kind of delineate those changes that have taken place as far as budget cuts and how many people from FEMA have been laid off. | ||
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unidentified
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Yeah, so there was only 200 people that actually have been fired. | |
| Most of the departures have been people that have left because of morale, because of the unknown of what's going to happen with the agency. | ||
| From the first week of this administration, President Trump and senior leadership in the administration have talked about the role of FEMA and whether it should be eliminated. | ||
| For career employees, that's troubling. | ||
| Your agency is being talked about and not being valued. | ||
| Do you stay and continue to put your all when you're eligible to retire, when you're not being respected? | ||
| So a lot of employees, I estimate maybe about 2,000 employees have departed since January 20th. | ||
| Do you think that there's bloat in FEMA, that that level can be absorbed and that they can be more efficient with less people? | ||
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unidentified
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Well, a lot of the leaders that have left brought are left with a lot of institutional knowledge. | |
| There's a lot of experience in emergency management. | ||
| We learn every year from responding to events. | ||
| And with this continuous improvement, we become stronger and better in responding to new challenges. | ||
| With the departure, there's going to be a lack of capacity. | ||
| Also, you know, as far as cuts, some of the programs that were cut were in particular in mitigation, the building resilient infrastructure communities, which was really focused on reducing future disaster costs by helping states and communities build resilient infrastructure. | ||
| When you say a lack of capacity, lack of capacity to do what? | ||
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unidentified
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Lack of capacity to support multiple events simultaneously, support the coordinate forest fire on this side of the country, a hurricane. | |
| A hurricane or it could be earthquake, could be two hurricanes. | ||
| You know, FEMA doesn't always have the opportunity to just respond to one disaster at a time. | ||
| Sometimes multiple things happen at the same time. | ||
| And if there's two catastrophic events happening simultaneously, it's going to be a challenge. | ||
| And you also mentioned mitigation strategies. | ||
| Can't that, and shouldn't that be done by the states themselves? | ||
| Why would the federal government need to get involved in that? | ||
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unidentified
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The states do. | |
| All states have mitigation plans in place. | ||
| The states do put robust resources into mitigation. | ||
| But the federal government is an important resource as far as funding to fund projects across the country. | ||
| If you'd like to join our conversation with Michael Cohen and talk about FEMA, the cuts there, hurricane season, that is already underway, you can do so. | ||
| Our lines are by region this time. | ||
| So if you're in the eastern or central time zones, call us on 202-748-8000. | ||
| If you're in a mountain or Pacific, it's 202-748-8001. | ||
| Especially want to hear from you if you have lived through a disaster, if you have used the services of FEMA in the past. | ||
| Let us know. | ||
| Call us and give us your impression, your experiences, and also any questions. | ||
| If you want to text us, you can do that on 202-748-8003. | ||
| What are your thoughts on the current FEMA management and specifically the acting administrator, David Richardson? | ||
|
unidentified
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I think it's unfortunate that we have the second acting administrator since January 20th who has no experience in emergency management. | |
| So the career staff will be spending a lot of time just educating him on the basics of emergency management, the functions of FEMA, the processes in place. | ||
| It's a challenging job being the FEMA administrator when you do have a career in emergency management. | ||
| So it's a challenging time. | ||
| This is an article on The Hill who says FEMA chief was joking with hurricane season awareness remarks, according to DHS. | ||
| And I want to show you Caroline Levitt, who was responding to that, and we'll get your comments. | ||
| Well, of course, we know that we are into hurricane season now, and I know FEMA is taking this seriously, contrary to some of the reporting we have seen based on jokes that were made and leaks from meetings. | ||
| But Secretary Christino and the FEMA leadership are all over this. | ||
| They are committed to ensuring that federal resources and tax dollars are there for Americans in need. | ||
| And the President continues to review requests for emergency aid and carefully considering them. | ||
| However, this President has made it clear we're not going to enable states to make bad decisions with federal tax dollars and then have the federal government later have to bail these states out. | ||
| We want to see states be responsible with their tax dollars to do as much as they possibly can. | ||
| And then the president will deeply and thoughtfully consider any requests for federal aid that come to his desk. | ||
| And I think some of the media reporting we've seen on this is frankly sloppy and irresponsible. | ||
| There are serious people who are taking this issue seriously. | ||
| And what do you think of that and also about what happened to President Trump's original FEMA director, Cameron Hamilton? | ||
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unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| So in regards to Acting Administrator Richardson, I don't believe it was a joke. | ||
| Why would you, what's the joke about hurricane season and not understanding that hurricane season had started? | ||
| How is that a joke? | ||
| So I don't believe it was a joke. | ||
| I believe the administration, Department of Homeland Security, and the White House is trying to cover up the inexperience of the current acting head of FEMA and trying to make it out that he was making a joke. | ||
| I don't know why you would make a joke about hurricane season if you're the acting FEMA administrator. | ||
| In regard to Cameron Hamilton, I believe Cameron Hamilton came in with good intentions to be a loyal political appointee in the Trump administration. | ||
| He, over time, gained an appreciation for the mission at FEMA, the complexities. | ||
| And when he testified to Congress, I believe he was a man of integrity and was testifying based on what he had learned during his time at FEMA. | ||
| And unfortunately, because of that, he was reassigned. | ||
| President Trump has said he wants to get rid of FEMA. | ||
| He said that it has not worked in the past. | ||
| Do you think it works? | ||
| And what changes are needed to make FEMA better and more responsive to the needs of disaster victims? | ||
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unidentified
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Yes, I do believe that FEMA works. | |
| FEMA is a misunderstood agency. | ||
| It's an agency that distributes about over $30 billion a year when you're responsible for administering tax dollars of that volume. | ||
| There has to be controls in place. | ||
| There's also an unexpected expectation of what FEMA is going to provide after disasters. | ||
| And it's different. | ||
| Everybody's disaster experience is different, whether you had insurance and whether you didn't have insurance, what other programs are available besides FEMA. | ||
| So, you know, I think FEMA plays a critical role in helping communities go from response to recovery. | ||
| All right, let's talk to callers. | ||
| John is in Delaray Beach, Florida. | ||
| John, you're in a hurricane area. | ||
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unidentified
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Yes, hi, thank you, C-SPAN. | |
| Um so I've lived in South Florida since 1973 and welcome to the hurricane season. |