DEBBIE ELLIOTT, HOST:
The agency charged with helping the nation prepare for natural disasters is itself in turmoil. President Trump wants the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be slimmed down or done away with entirely. The agency has lost a third of its total staff and sharply reduced emergency training just as hurricane season gets started. It's predicted to be more active than normal this year, with as many as five major hurricanes ahead. Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz of Florida, a former emergency manager himself, has been vocal with his concerns about the agency and joins us now to talk about what's going on. Congressman, thanks so much for being on the show.
JARED MOSKOWITZ: Hey, Debbie. Thanks for having me.
ELLIOTT: So with thousands of staffers now gone, senior leadership making for the exits, do you think FEMA's ready to handle the next disaster?
MOSKOWITZ: Well, it doesn't appear so. And that's what the memos from the department are saying. And so, listen, let's go backwards for a second. The president was correct that FEMA needed reform. This has not been a secret in the emergency management industry. We've been saying FEMA needed reform for a long period of time. One of those reforms is to get FEMA out of Homeland. Homeland has been disabusing FEMA for years now, making them do all the grants for the other 22 agencies within Homeland, which is a big bureaucratic mess. You know, it's been taking FEMA's focus away from response and recovery, which is their core mission.
ELLIOTT: I want to talk a little bit more about the new administrator. He's acting chief David Richardson. You know, earlier this week, he joked with his staff that he wasn't aware we had a hurricane season, and he seems to have gone back and forth on this year's disaster response plan. What are you hearing about the culture and the sentiment among the people who remain at FEMA?
MOSKOWITZ: People are very concerned about what's going on there. I mean, they fired the other guy, the previous interim administrator, because he said something truthful, which is that the country and the president would be well served by keeping FEMA. You know, look, I don't know Mr. Richardson. He might be a nice guy, but he's got zero experience with this. It reminds me of the Michael Brown situation.
ELLIOTT: During Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago.
MOSKOWITZ: That's right. So maybe we get lucky, and I hope we do. I hope we - even though they're calling for above-average hurricane season, maybe we get lucky. Maybe we don't have a catastrophic event. But if we do, you know, Mr. Richardson is definitely not ready, nor will he know how to respond, just to his lack of experience. If I were him, I would be using every day right now in what we call blue skies before we get to gray skies, try to fix some of these problems that they've created.
ELLIOTT: Now, let's talk about the long-standing problems at FEMA, something that you've talked about in the past, and the criticism, indeed, has been bipartisan. The Trump administration says FEMA is bloated and has failed Americans. What reforms does the agency need, in your mind?
MOSKOWITZ: Well, one, I would get it out of Homeland Security. I have a bipartisan bill with Byron Donalds to get FEMA out of Homeland Security. We have a companion bill in the Senate to do the same - make it its own independent agency as it was before 9/11 - direct report to the president. Another bill I have, also bipartisan, is to create block grants, right? If we want to streamline some of the grant writing, we could give governors the ability to request block grants, so they would be running the grant from their state rather than up here in Washington. Not all states can do that, which is why I wouldn't mandate it. I would allow governors to request it. I would allow the president to approve it, and we could block grant some of that money down.
ELLIOTT: Now, Congressman...
MOSKOWITZ: And so...
ELLIOTT: ...What I'm hearing you say is very similar to what Donald Trump has talked about and what Governor Ron DeSantis has said, that if you cut out the federal bureaucracy and left it to the states, you'd save money. So you're sort of suggesting the states are better positioned to handle this. They just need more federal money to do it.
MOSKOWITZ: Well, not all states are created equal, right? And so what I'm saying is there are some states that could handle block granting the money down. The government block grants all sorts of programs down to the states. So this is not a new concept. And so, look, it's not just about bureaucracy up here. It's about getting FEMA to refocus on response and recovery. That's what we need them to do. But we got to stop talking about deleting FEMA, eliminating FEMA. It's not going to happen, and it wouldn't be in the best interest of the American people or red states. Red states would suffer more than anybody else.
ELLIOTT: You actually ran Florida's emergency management agency for a time, right?
MOSKOWITZ: Yeah. I was the director of emergency management for Ron DeSantis. So obviously, you know, not my political party - didn't vote for the governor - but he gave me an opportunity. I took it, and I served the residents of Florida. And that's what emergency management has always been and should continue to be, which is nonpartisan, right? Hurricanes, tornadoes, they don't just hit Republicans or Democrats. They hit communities.
ELLIOTT: So your district in South Florida is one of the more hurricane-prone parts of the country. Are you telling your constituents to be preparing for hurricane season any differently given the upheaval at FEMA?
MOSKOWITZ: I am. In fact, we literally just sent out a newsletter to my constituents. And what I've said to them specifically this year, different, is be prepared for things to be slower. Don't wait till the last minute. Go out and get some of these things beforehand. You can get bottled water. You can get batteries early. Make sure you have them, right? You can get canned goods early. You don't have to wait. So I want people to understand, you know, that that's where we're at.
ELLIOTT: That's U.S. Representative Jared Moskowitz, Democrat from Florida. Congressman, thank you so much for your time.
MOSKOWITZ: Thank you so much.
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