FEMA tensions put a test for Noem

Political tensions and issues surrounded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) promise to be a key test for South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (on the right), when done charge of the department that houses the agency.

Noem, President Trump’s candidate for the Secretary of the National Security Department (DHS), is on the way to confirmation of the Senate after the National Security Committee and Government Affairs of the Chamber advanced his nomination on Monday in a vote on Monday. 13 to 2.

Although much of its immediate itinerary will probably focus on immigration, its confirmation process is also in the midst of the ongoing wildfire crisis in California and the recovery of devastating hurricanes in the southeast. If Noem is confirmed as head of DHS, it will be commissioned to supervise the FEMA as a response to those disasters that Trump has so far been very critical, and as the impulse of the President and his administration for a Change of federal government. Questions about the broadest future of the agency.

Both FEMA and the wildfires that have burned about 40,000 hectares in southern California in recent weeks, killing more than two dozen people and causing one estimated between 250,000 and $ 275 billion In damage, they have been the subject of political tensions when Trump has entered his second term. The President has criticized the agencySaying in an interview Wednesday with Sean Hanity of Fox News that Fema’s future will be a great discussion very soon, because I prefer to see that the states take care of their own problems. ”

In the same interview hebentOn threats to retaining federal help to help California help to fight and recover from fires unless the state changes its focus on water management. GOP legislators, including President Mike Johnson (R-La.

Democratic legislators and California officials have expressed concern about the perspective that Trump politicizes the state’s help in the midst of NoEM’s nomination and confirmation process.

Noem said in his confirmation audience last week that he would follow the law and would not politicize any distribution of help in the event of a disaster as secretary of the DHS, but he dodged if he would ignore a Trump order of doing so. Asked by Senator Richard Blumenhal (D-Con.) About what he would do if he faced such an order, Noem said he would not do “hypothetical”, to which Blumenthal. replied with reports that Trump ignored the applications for forest fire aid then Governor of Washington Jay Inslee (D) in his first term.

The Trump administration has also stated the desire for major changes in the apolitical career staff of the federal agencies. However, the experience of these agencies staff such as FEMA may be especially useful for facilitating the transition between administrations, as well as it can look at the agency’s story, said Tricia Wachhendorf, a professor at the Center for Research. of disasters of the University of Delaware.

As a potential model, Wachshorf cited Project Impact, a 1990s Fema program that worked to develop resilience to community disasters. The program was completed in 2004, at which time Fema had been absorbed by the 2 -year -old DHS.

“It was something that both the Republican and the Democrats found really valuable they accepted, and there were many significant results that arose,” he said. “Thinking about existing current programs related to disaster mitigation, response and recovery, thinking of problems in Los Angeles right now, as well as other types of events here in North Carolina, where recovery (from l ‘Hurricane Helene) is still ongoing, these types of topics have the potential to build bridges. “

“To keep it at the forefront of the new secretary of the new secretary, to invest instead of eliminating some of the good existing strategies, it will really be essential,” he said.

Wachtendorf also pointed out Noem’s experience as South Dakota governor. Noem, who would be the third former governor to run the DHS, is likely to be “in a solid position to know that the response to a disaster really requires a focus of the whole community, so out of FEMA or DHS, this is having Instead, these needs, capacities and perspectives of local and state entities, “he said.

Noem made a similar note in his testimony, telling the committee that “emergencies and disasters are always directed locally” and that “one of the things that does not do FEMA that I think we should do is streamline communications” .

Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparation at Columbia University, said that, in the midst of conversations on changes in the federal government, a recurring debate on whether FEMA belongs to the DHS will also be re -emerging.

That debate reached its peak after Katrina hurricane, when the storm management by then administrator Michael Brown was widely criticized. But there has been concerns that the removal of an Agency from the department’s eagery could establish a precedent that will lead to the most outings and the event collapse of the DHS, he said.

In the meantime, he added, Noem can start in the management of disasters, respecting the history of the Agency’s relative autonomy within the DHS. “It can be very tempting to declare an emergency and introduce FEMA” In various circumstances, he added, such as immigration, an important topic during the NoEM confirmation audience.

“When FEMA is involved in non -traditional missions it can be detrimental” for wider preparation for disasters, he said.

Noem’s DHS is likely to be trapped in a wider debate on whether FEMA extends too much as natural disasters increase in number and intensity, with climate change as the main factor. Trump has a story of minimizing or denying climate change, but Schlegelmilch said that to be effective, the next DHS secretary must “cut bulls …” on climate change.

“All of these are things that must be discussed and must be discussed,” he said. “At the same time, we cannot stop what we are doing to have this debate, we need career professionals.”

“There is a lot in the details,” he added, and “we must be careful that our ideology is not moving forward.”

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