New Bill Would Overhaul FEMA, Ban Political Discrimination In Disaster Relief

A new bipartisan bill would make FEMA directly accountable to the president and officially prohibit political discrimination in disaster relief. 

The new bill, officially introduced Thursday, would make FEMA an independent agency and look to cut down on the red tape that has bogged down the agency for years. It would also add explicit protections for political beliefs after an employee was caught last year directing emergency responders to skip the homes of Trump supporters. 

“The American people need an emergency management system that works quickly and effectively, not one that makes disaster recovery more difficult,” said Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), the chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. “But time and time again, we’ve heard the same story from state and local officials, emergency managers, and disaster victims: the federal process is too slow, complicated, and disconnected from the realities on the ground.”

The bill was also introduced by Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), the top Democrat on the Transportation Committee, and Reps. Daniel Webster (R-FL) and Greg Stanton (D-AZ). 

A previous draft of the legislation was introduced in May for public comment and input from emergency management professionals. 

The bill would seek to incentivize states to save up their own funds for emergencies, speed up the emergency grant approval process, close out the roughly 1,000 disaster declarations dating back to Hurricane Katrina, and streamline the application for aid.  

One of the key components of the draft legislation is that it would add “political affiliation” as a protected status under current federal law. Senator James Lankford (R-OK) previously introduced legislation in the Senate that would do the same thing.

This proposal comes after The Daily Wire reported in November that FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington ordered relief workers in Lake Placid, Florida, to skip the homes of people “advertising Trump.” Washington and three other FEMA employees were fired over the instructions, which caused over 20 homes to be skipped by FEMA workers.

President Donald Trump has called for dramatic reforms to FEMA and floated the idea of getting rid of the agency completely. In an executive order, he called for the creation of a federal council to look at the possibility of getting rid of FEMA and shifting responsibility to the states.