Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On President Trump’s Un-American Threat To Eliminate FEMA

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on President Trump threatening to eliminate FEMA. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Yesterday, President Trump travelled to North Carolina and California to tour sites ravaged by both hurricanes and wildfires. While speaking to reporters, the President mentioned the role of FEMA, saying he plans to issue an executive order that could possibly eliminate FEMA altogether.

In his words, “I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away.”

Look, if we want to talk about commonsense reforms to disaster response, that is one thing.

But getting rid of FEMA entirely, because of the conservative hunger to shrink government at all costs, is very dangerous. That could leave families, business owners, and local communities fending for themselves.

President Trump’s proposal to get rid of FEMA has Project 2025 written all over it. Project 2025 wants to privatize some of FEMA’s programs, including National Flood Insurance that vulnerable communities rely on desperately. Project 2025 calls for the shrinking of the federal government’s share of disaster aid and making the states and local taxpayers pay a larger share. That’s antithetical to how Americans stick together and look after each other in times of disaster.

Why do we have a national FEMA? Because Americans pull together, not divide one another. And when an area had trouble, whether it’s floods in North Carolina, or hurricanes in Florida, or fires in California, or the devastating effects of Sandy in New York, the whole nation pulls together and says, ‘we’re going to help those devasted areas. We’re all together in this.’ Now, Donald Trump and his toying with getting rid of FEMA undoes that beautiful part of America that said we all stuck with one another, when one area had such a disaster that they couldn’t deal with it all themselves.

History is clear that when it comes to disaster response: there are some things only the federal government is equipped to do. And President Trump would be mistaken to ignore that. When states get overwhelmed, when their highways are buckling, when they don’t have trucks and ambulances because of flooding or fires or whatever – earthquakes – to get to the people in need, FEMA comes right in. It’s happened in my state, it’s happened in your state, it’s happened in everybody’s state.

Get rid of FEMA because a group of hard-right people want to see that the wealthy in America pay less taxes, a-la Project 2025? Un-American to me, and it’s against a grand tradition that we’ve had for over a century, the tradition of each area of the country helping one another.

Eliminating FEMA without thinking of the consequences will only mean more pain and more confusion from communities at their worst times, times of crisis. The President should back away from this threat.

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