Democrats push for hearing on disaster preparation, response after Texas flood
House Democrats are calling for an immediate hearing on disaster preparations, including Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) resources, after catastrophic flooding in Texas killed more than 100 people over the weekend.
“The flooding … raises serious concerns about FEMA’s readiness and highlights the damaging role that the Trump administration has played in weakening the Federal government’s capacity to respond to disasters,” Democratic Reps. Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and Julie Johnson (Texas), the top Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee, wrote in a letter to chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday.
The letter, which primarily takes aim at President Trump’s administration, was cosigned by 20 additional Democratic House members.
A spokesperson for Green, who announced Monday that he plans to resign from the House later this month to take a job in the private sector, didn’t immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
The Democrats noted in their letter that Trump canceled the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) disaster grant program in April, clawing back billions that had been designated for projects aimed at protecting communities from floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters.
“The danger is not over — in fact, the most active part of the hurricane season has not yet begun,” they wrote. “Without a fully staffed and adequately funded FEMA, communities impacted by the flooding in Texas — as well as communities that will be affected by disasters in the future — may face unnecessary obstacles in accessing assistance, rebuilding critical infrastructure, and receiving long-term hazard mitigation support.”
They also highlighted Trump’s push to phase out FEMA and position states as the primary response after disasters.
“We wanna wean off of FEMA and we wanna bring it down to the state level,” Trump told reporters in June. “We’re moving it back to the states so the governors can handle.”
“That’s why they’re governors — if they can’t handle it, you know, they shouldn’t be governor,” he added.
The Democratic lawmakers argued that “breakdowns in the public alert system” during the Texas flood exposed weaknesses in how emergency warnings are disseminated and a hearing could uncover additional FEMA deficiencies.
“The potential gaps in the emergency alert system during this catastrophe did not occur in a vacuum,” they wrote. “The Trump administration has taken alarming steps to weaken FEMA’s ability to carry out its mission.”
The Texas Hill Country took on more than a foot of rain — approximately four months’ worth for the area — in mere hours on July 4, according to meteorologists, and pushed rolling water past the banks of the Guadalupe River and its tributaries.
Search and recovery efforts remain underway with dozens of people still reported missing. More than a third of the confirmed deaths were children, including attendees of the Camp Mystic all-girls summer camp in rural Kerr County, Texas.