Alaska politicians plead poverty, claiming we need 100 percent federal disaster assistance
Sen. Mike Cronk claimed on Facebook that “despite all the rumors of FEMA being cut by Trump, rest assured FEMA is here in Alaska working with federal agencies to get an expedited request from the governor to POTUS for a federal declaration.”
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich the Third are right there with him in remaining willfully blind to Donald Trump’s plans to cut the Federal Emergency Management Agency and what it may mean for Alaska and the response to the widespread disaster in Western Alaska.
Trump’s plan to cut FEMA is not a rumor. And it’s no rumor that the agency is in chaos and that Sullivan and Begich have looked the other way, adhering to their “Trump can do no wrong” behavior, while pretending that the agency can be counted on to be functional.
Requests for immediate federal assistance have been made by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the Congressional delegation, but it remains to be seen what Trump will do.
The Alaska politicians are asking that the federal government cover the entire cost of emergency assistance for three months, suggesting that the state with an $83 billion Permanent Fund can’t afford to put up a dime.
Everything the state is doing now should be reimbursed by the feds, they claim.
“In light of the extraordinary circumstances, and consistent with the action taken following Typhoon Merbok, we also request that the administration authorize a 100 percent federal cost share for emergency work during this recovery,” Sullivan, Murkowski and Begich III wrote to Trump.
For more disasters, the federal cost share is usually 75 percent, but in extraordinary cases, the president can allow 100 percent.
“At this time, I respectfully request that you authorize a 100 percent federal cost share for all categories for 90 days. Response and initial recovery costs associated with this disaster in rural, remote and insular regions of Alaska are exponentially higher than a traditional response along the road system in the Lower 48 states not in the U.S. Arctic,” Dunleavy pleaded.
Ignoring this extraordinary and traditional hypocrisy for today, let’s be clear that Trump’s efforts to make FEMA less effective and destroy its ability to respond are not rumors.
FEMA has proposed cutting the reimbursement rate to states for emergencies and the Project 2025 blueprint calls for drastic cuts in federal support and the end of FEMA.
“FEMA has been a very big disappointment. They cost a tremendous amount of money. It's very bureaucratic, and it's very slow,” Trump said in January after seeing hurricane damage in North Carolina. “I think that when there’s a problem with the state, I think that that problem should be taken care of by the state.”
It was not a rumor Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a televised March cabinet meeting that “we are going to eliminate FEMA.”
It is not a rumor that two months later, in May, she told Congress that instead of elimination, Trump was “reorienting” FEMA, but she failed to explain.
It is not a rumor that two months later, in July, she said in Texas that “this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency.”
It is not a rumor that Trump said he wants to “phase out” FEMA starting in November.
And it is not a rumor that Noem, during the government shutdown, has signed a no-bid deal to buy two luxury jets with Coast Guard funds to fly her and other federal employees around the country.
Nearly 2,500 FEMA staff have left the agency this year after Trump began talking about the elimination plan, the Federal News Network reported.
“A few dozen people gathered outside FEMA headquarters in Washington on Friday for a ‘FEMA Solidarity Rally.’ Attendees called on FEMA to reinstate staff who signed a public dissent letter and urging Congress to pass a bipartisan emergency management reform bill. The protest occurred as about 85% of FEMA staff work without pay through the shutdown,” the Federal News Network said.
More than 190 former and current employees signed the so-called Katrina Declaration, an open letter to Congress that says that the agency has been crippled by a lack of staff and incompetent leadership.
“FEMA’s current capacities have been significantly limited due to a loss of personnel through programs designed to incentivize our workforce to leave federal service, ongoing hiring freezes, and the cancellation of critical support contracts. One-third of FEMA’s full-time staff have departed the agency this year, leading to the loss of irreplaceable institutional knowledge and long-built relationships,” the protest letter says.
“Our shared commitment to our country, our oaths of office, and our mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters compel us to warn Congress and the American people of the cascading effects of decisions made by the current administration,” the letter states.
More than 20 FEMA employees were suspended for signing the letter.
Perhaps our impoverished politicians should read this New York Times report from Thursday about how “Emergency managers and elected officials across the country are adjusting to a system in which they can no longer count on the sort of disaster aid they typically expect from FEMA, which was established in 1979 to coordinate and professionalize disaster response.”
“A steady backlog of pending disaster aid requests has persisted this year, sitting at a dozen as of Tuesday,” the Times said.
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