FEMA could still support winter storm response in a shutdown, despite administration warnings

1 hour ago

Associated Press,

MGN

By GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA

Associated Press

The Federal Emergency Management Agency would have enough money to respond to the massive winter storm still impacting large swaths of the U.S. even if a partial government shutdown begins at midnight Friday, experts and former FEMA officials said, despite Trump administration warnings to the contrary.

FEMA would have about $7 billion to $8 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund, even if the money Congress appropriated for the fund in the November spending bill that ended the longest-ever government shutdown were to expire Friday at midnight, according to two people familiar with the matter. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss FEMA funding with the media.

Experts said the remaining balance should be enough to limit impacts on the winter storm response, at least in the short term.

“They have enough money for winter storm recovery and anything else likely to come up in the next few weeks,” said Sarah Labowitz, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of the Disaster Dollar Database, which tracks federal disaster spending.

FEMA falls under the Department of Homeland Security, one of several departments whose funding for fiscal year 2026 depends on the Senate passing a spending package that the House already approved. After federal immigration officers killed a Minneapolis man Saturday, some Senate Democrats are demanding restrictions on the administration’s mass deportations agenda in any DHS funding bill, a stand that increases the prospect of a partial government shutdown by the end of the week.

Trump administration officials have cited the storm and FEMA’s response to it as a reason to avoid a shutdown.

“We are in the midst of the winter storm that took place over the weekend and many Americans are still being impacted by that, so we absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday.

DHS did not respond to requests for comment.

States still assessing winter storm impacts
The Disaster Relief Fund pays for FEMA’s disaster response and recovery efforts and the staff who work on them. That work can continue unless the fund is in danger of running out.

FEMA is supporting state-led responses to last weekend’s gigantic winter storm, which left hundreds of thousands of residents across multiple states without power and is tied to at least 70 deaths.

President Donald Trump approved emergency declarations for 12 states, unlocking federal support for emergency measures and debris removal. The agency pre-positioned generators in states like Louisiana and Texas and is coordinating federal assistance for tasks like clearing fallen trees from roads in Mississippi and Tennessee.

It’s unclear how many states if any will request major disaster declarations after they assess damages, which can help pay for repairs to critical infrastructure and financial assistance for impacted households through the Disaster Relief Fund.

“The winter storm at this time is well within the capability of local communities and states,” said Michael Coen, former FEMA chief of staff in the Obama and Biden administrations.

The timing of the potential shutdown also helps ease concerns over FEMA’s coffers. “We’re a bit of a ways off from wildfire season and hurricane season, so I don’t see a huge impact in the short run in terms of FEMA operations,” said Noah Patton, director of disaster recovery at the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

If a partial government shutdown does occur, some FEMA operations not funded by the Disaster Relief Fund, like the ability to write or renew National Flood Insurance Program policies, would once again pause as they did during last year’s 43-day shutdown. Some essential employees would work unpaid.

An extended shutdown could put more pressure on the Disaster Relief Fund, especially if FEMA must respond to new disasters, and could result in a slowdown of reimbursements for past disasters. Several experts pointed out that those reimbursements have already lagged due to a DHS policy that expenditures of $100,000 or more be personally approved by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The spending bill now before the Senate would give the Disaster Relief Fund over $26 billion, as well as nearly $4 billion for various FEMA emergency preparedness and security grants.

Mixed messages on FEMA as shutdown looms
Trump officials’ warnings about FEMA’s ability to help states come at a moment when the administration’s own support for the agency is in question. Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of phasing out FEMA and often calls for states to take on more responsibility for disasters.

Now, Trump officials seem to be leaning on FEMA and its critical purpose as a reason not to shut down the government.

“This funding supports national security and critical national emergency operations, including FEMA responses to a historic snowstorm that is affecting 250 million Americans,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Tuesday.

The greater impacts to FEMA are not from a potential partial shutdown, Coen said, but from Trump’s own policies.

“The administration has been dismantling FEMA over the last year,” he said. “Using the agency as a justification for congressional action is laughable.”

Despite saying he wants to overhaul FEMA, Trump has not yet articulated a vision for those reforms. The December release of a long-awaited report from his FEMA Review Council was abruptly canceled and has not been rescheduled.

Meanwhile, several administration policies have had significant consequences for the agency and the states, tribes and territories it supports, including the departure of thousands of staff and interruptions to grant programs.

Language in the proposed spending bill aims to rein in some of those actions, limiting FEMA’s ability to pause grants and trainings, and requiring the agency to publicly report the status of FEMA’s reimbursements to states for declared disasters.

Labowitz said some of the administration’s policies contributed to why FEMA did not run out of money last year, pointing to delays in major disaster approvals and reimbursements. “All last year they were slow walking spending in the DRF.”