https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/josh-hawley-begs-trump-administration-fema-aid-missouri-1235343815/

Senators grilled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday over her management of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and how the agency — which President Donald Trump has sought to dismantle — is responding to a series of devastating storms across the southern United States.

During a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked Noem what she would do about pending federal disaster declaration requests for the state of Missouri — which has been wracked by a series of deadly tornadoes — that have not been approved by the president. Mississippi, which is still recovering from extreme weather events in March, is also waiting for approval on months-old disaster relief declarations.

“The state has pending three requests for major disaster declarations from earlier storms we’ve lost over a dozen people. Well, actually, if you count the folks we lost just on Friday, we’ve lost almost 20 people now in major storms just in the last two months in Missouri,” Hawley said.

“Will you commit to helping, for those three major disaster declaration requests that are pending, will you expedite those, Secretary Noem, and get those in front of the president, get those approved?” Hawley asked. “We are desperate for the assistance in Missouri.”

Noem replied that she would make sure the applications were put before Trump as soon as possible, and agreed to expedite individual assistance for qualified Missourians impacted by the recent storms.

A prominent Republican lawmaker like Hawley begging a Republican administration to approve emergency aid for a Republican state is a sign of how badly federal agencies responsible for the welfare of vulnerable populations have eroded under Trump.

The plea came a day after St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer told MSNBC that “FEMA has not been on the ground” and that the city does not “have confirmed assistance from FEMA at this point.”

“What we need right now is federal assistance. This is where FEMA and the federal government has got to come in and help communities. Our city cannot shoulder this alone. The state of Missouri cannot shoulder this alone,” Spencer said. “We need partners at the national level, at the federal level, to step up and help — and this is not just true for St. Louis. Cities across the nation, when they are experiencing disasters such as this, this is what the federal government is for.”

Last month, Arkansas’ Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders — who previously served as Trump’s press secretary — issued a letter to the president pleading with him to reconsider FEMA’s denial of an emergency disaster declaration request as the state recovered from a series of tornadoes in March. In her letter, Sanders wrote that “without the support of a Major Disaster Declaration, Arkansas will face significant challenges in assuming full responsibility and achieving an effective recovery from this event,” and that “supplemental Federal assistance is crucial” to recovery efforts.

The declaration was finally issued on May 13, almost exactly two months after the storms hit the state, and a month after Huckabee wrote to the president.

Meanwhile, Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear appeared on CNN to discuss the tornadoes that killed 19 people in the state over the last week. “I’m very concerned about cuts to FEMA or to the National Weather Service,” Beshear said. “But I want to be clear that the actual response on the ground by the Trump administration and Secretary Noem has been good. The way FEMA has treated people has been good. The president has approved each of our applications,” he added.

The disparity in response levels speaks to the scattershot, disorganized manner with which the Trump administration has handled disaster responses.

In the months since Trump assumed office, FEMA has been hit with sweeping staffing and management cuts in accordance with Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives. In March, Noem announced that she would move to “eliminate” the agency altogether and transfer disaster management responsibilities to individual states. FEMA’s interim head Cameron Hamilton was removed from his post earlier this month after testifying before Congress that he felt the agency’s demise would be detrimental to public welfare. His replacement, former Marine Corps Officer David Richardson, sent a dire warning to staff: “Don’t get in my way […] because I will run right over you. I will achieve the president’s intent.”

During Tuesday’s Senate hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) grilled Noem on the Trump administration’s plans to gut FEMA, and how it would affect their ability to respond to disasters.

“You are losing a fifth of the workforce at FEMA. What’s your plan to replace them?” Blumenthal asked. “How are you going to meet the needs of our constituents?”

Noem dodged the question, talking over Blumenthal’s attempts to redirect her and claiming that it was actually the Biden administration’s fault that the agency was bloated and ineffective.

But as much as Trump’s Cabinet would like to place the failings of the administration at the feet of his predecessor, the states currently attempting to manage deadly disasters aren’t running to Joe Biden for assistance — they’re begging the current occupant of the White House.

tRump said that he loves uneducated people. All Republicans do. This is why they tried to destroy the educational system for the masses.

>>1407288 (OP)
Reminder DOGE killed 20 people in Kentucky last week. The tornado warning was delayed to the last minute because DOGE defunded their overnight monitoring teams. They had to scramble to get a last minute bunch together to report on it, but it still delayed the warning and reporting for a day or two. This death toll almost definitely could've been lowered if they were funded the same way they were this time last year.

>>1407290
>Noem dodged the question, talking over Blumenthal’s attempts to redirect her and claiming that it was actually the Biden administration’s fault that the agency was bloated and ineffective.
So it's Biden's fault the agency is bloated and ineffective, but not your fault for defunding it even further and making it even less effective? Or, barring that, fixing Biden's mistake?

This fucking admin SELF ADMITS they operate under literal toddler logic where they see another kid break something and instead of helping clean it up they just tell the other kids that the first kid broke something.

>>1407298
>So it's Biden's fault the agency is bloated and ineffective
Yeah
Mayorkas (now being charged for treason btw) under Biden was spending FEMA funds on housing migrants, ran out of discretionary funding doing so and fucked up handling four national disasters.
Also, Biden was threatening to arrest Americans for "spreading misinfo" about FEMA doing retarded shit, e.g ignoring houses with Trump voter signs.
They're less than useless. They're actively antagonistic to Americans. Total waste of taxdollars.

>>1407299
Incredible, not a single thing you said is true.

>Mayorkas (now being charged for treason btw)
Not happening at all
>was spending FEMA funds on housing migrants
Not true either; same org, different fund. The budgets were separate; all the money spent on immigrants were approved to be spent on immigrants, and all the money fema spent was approved for natural disasters
> ran out of discretionary funding doing so and fucked up handling four national disasters.
They never actually ran out of money you retard; they warned at the rate things were going they'd run into funding issues, but they never actually ran out.
>Also, Biden was threatening to arrest Americans for "spreading misinfo" about FEMA doing retarded shit, e.g ignoring houses with Trump voter signs.
This had a single case with a single worker, who got fired but cited doing it because Trump supporters were threatening their canvassers. Which, you know, we literally have footage of them doing to other workers so I'm not shocked they came to the conclusion it was better to avoid them.

The irony is you're saying it's a waste of tax dollars as republicans are begging them for help that Trump is denying. And you're DEFINITELY not getting that help if FEMA dies.

>>1407297
And this is going to happen over and over and over again.

>>1407300
>Not happening at all
Fact check: false.
>Not true either; same org, different fund.
Discretionary funding was used to house migrants.
Discretionary is what it says on the tin.
>They never actually ran out of money you retard
Mayorkas admitted it.
Mayorkas ran DHS.
DHS ran FEMA.
QED
>This had a single case with a single worker
A single case of a supervisor managing multiple groups of people responsible for ensuring the safety of Americans, conclusively proving that FEMA was a politically biased organization in a time of crisis.
> And you're DEFINITELY not getting that help if FEMA dies.
Good, it's a historically terrible organization, going all the way back to the Katrina rape dome.

Cara Spencer is a whore and will use any FEMA aid money on cocaine.

>>1407302
>Fact check: false.
Please point to the treason investigation you seem to think exists.
>Discretionary funding was used to house migrants.
No it wasn't. Again, please point to your sources.
>Mayorkas admitted it.
No he didn't. Again. Sources.
>conclusively proving that FEMA was a politically biased organization in a time of crisis.
The actions of one fired supervisor doesn't mean shit you retard.

>>1407301
Hurricane season is gonna be fucking goofy this year.

>>1407297
you voted for this

>>1407589
They voted for this. I voted against Trump for exactly this fucking reason.

They voted for this so they get what they deserve.

Everyone should get what they voted for.