The Trump administration is increasingly skipping a form of federal disaster aid that helps states better prepare for future storms, flooding and wildfires.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency rejected requests for such resiliency money, known as Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding, for Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma last week, part of a trend that started this spring.
These denials are one way the administration is trying to cut costs and narrow the scope of FEMA, the nation’s primary agency for disaster work that sits under the Department of Homeland Security.
The administration is weighing the approval of hazard mitigation funding “with states’ ability to execute those funds,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. “To date, we are observing large unobligated balances across the board,” she added.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump reiterated his plan to eliminate the agency, possibly as soon as the end of hurricane season in late fall. “We’re going to do it much differently,” he said in the Oval Office. Standing near Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: “You’ve been very clear you want to see FEMA eliminated as it exists today. So I’m preparing all these governors that they will have more control over the decisions on how they respond to their communities so that they can help it happen faster.”
The federal hazard mitigation money is used for flood buyouts of homes and constructing tornado safe rooms. Not receiving it “would mean that there would be fewer funds available for Missouri communities to fund such projects,” said Mike O’Connell, communications director for the Missouri Department of Public Safety.
A new tack on disaster preparedness
The requests for hazard mitigation funds were part of the states’ applications for major disaster declarations, a status that comes with federal assistance. Missouri experienced back-to-back severe storms in mid- and late March. That same month, Iowa experienced a severe winter storm, while Mississippi was hit by strong storms and Oklahoma was affected by straight-line winds and wildfires. In each case, the destruction from the disasters overwhelmed local and state responses, prompting Republican Governors Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Tate Reeves of Mississippi, Mike Kehoe of Missouri and Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma to seek federal assistance.
On May 21, Trump signed major disaster declarations that greenlit some funding to help affected communities in the four states recover and rebuild. But the states’ specific requests for money to invest in projects to boost defenses and preparedness against future storms and other disasters remained under review.
Less than two weeks later, on June 2, FEMA denied the hazard mitigation requests, according to a review of three of the five rejection letters and interviews with state officials.
It’s a pattern that started in March, when the Trump administration stopped automatically approving hazard mitigation requests tied to major disasters. It later denied two state requests, in May.
The denials represent a big change from how previous administrations, including Trump’s during his first term, responded to such requests, when the approval of this money as part of large post-disaster aid packages “was considered to be almost automatic,” said Michael Coen, who used to review the requests as FEMA’s chief of staff under former President Joe Biden.
Jackson said in a statement that the White House is “working with states to assist them in identifying projects and drawing down balances in a way that makes the nation more resilient.” (When asked about the administration’s denials of hazard mitigation funding in May, she provided identical comments.)
Neither she nor the DHS provided any additional details.
Missouri officials said they are preparing to appeal FEMA’s denial of hazard mitigation funds, while Iowa and Mississippi are still considering their options. Oklahoma has decided against appealing because it received other federal funding it can use in a similar way, according to state officials.
Photo: Destroyed homes at a trailer park following severe weather in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, on March 15. Photographer: Brad Vest/Getty Images
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