Chuck Schumer Lights Into Trump, Secretary Noem Amid Reports That FEMA Laid Off Staff After Texas Floods

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about FEMA reportedly laying off staff.

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00:00Mr. President, we continue to pray for the families of the 132 people now confirmed dead

00:06in Central Texas.

00:08We continue to pray for everyone still missing.

00:11We thank our heroic first responders who risked their lives to save those trapped in the storm.

00:19Now in the aftermath of the tragedy in Texas, some of us asked very necessary questions

00:26about how to prevent something like this from ever happening again.

00:30Did federal funding cuts hinder rescue efforts?

00:34Did staffing shortages make it harder to respond?

00:38Of course Donald Trump didn't like these questions.

00:41He threw a fit, a tantrum.

00:44He called them lies.

00:45He said they were inappropriate.

00:47That's how he talks.

00:49We know now why he threw a fit and acted so defensively because sadly we may well have

00:55been right.

00:57Donald Trump and Kristi Noem have spent months attacking FEMA, calling for its elimination,

01:04slashing its budget, hollowing out its workforce.

01:07And now their own chaos is catching up with them in the worst, worst way.

01:12Now they're trying to change their tune, saying they don't want to get rid of FEMA.

01:15A few months ago they were all for getting rid of it.

01:18Now they say they just want to change it.

01:21But there aren't enough walkbacks or pivots in the world to erase the truth.

01:26Their actions have unnecessarily harmed America's disaster response ecosystem.

01:33Last week I demanded an investigation into what role, if any, the administration's staff

01:39cuts to local National Weather Service stations played in this tragedy.

01:44It's now clear that the administration fired key FEMA personnel during, and sadly, after

01:51the tragedy.

01:52So today it's very clear.

01:55This is a systemic problem that exists in Texas, extends beyond Texas, beyond the National

02:02Weather Service, and across FEMA.

02:05Here are the facts about FEMA.

02:07A day after the Texas flooding, FEMA laid off workers, hundreds of call center workers.

02:13On July 7th, the agency received 16,000 calls and only answered 2,000 of them, around 16%.

02:23Secretary Noem, meanwhile, issued a directive on July 11th saying that all DHS contracts of

02:30over 100,000 had to be personally approved by her, according to the New York Times.

02:36Deployment including, according to the New York Times, deployment of search and rescue teams.

02:44Every one of them had to be signed off.

02:46This is not efficiency.

02:48This is adding red tape in the midst of a crisis, authored by Kristi Noem herself.

02:54Experts say this ill-advised decision very likely hindered recovery efforts.

03:00As it stands today, FEMA is operating with a quarter fewer staffers compared to 18 months

03:05ago.

03:06One quarter fewer.

03:08Including senior level officials, meteorologists, institutional experts, people who coordinate

03:14with public officials, and other levels of government to respond to natural disasters.

03:21In the middle of a natural disaster, Donald Trump and Kristi Noem are sowing chaos at FEMA,

03:27and their incompetence is putting lives in danger.

03:30They have this, them and the Doge people and so many around them, they have this fanatical

03:35dislike of all government.

03:37And so they just cut it.

03:39They don't even know what the effect will be.

03:41They don't even care.

03:43Just cut, cut, cut.

03:45Cut meteorologists who warn our people, our citizens, our farmers, our businesses of danger

03:52that might come.

03:53Cut them.

03:54Cut waste.

03:57Their recklessness is hurting rescue efforts.

04:02It's hurt the existing ones, and it's going to hurt more of them in the future unless they

04:05reverse themselves.

04:07We all support making agencies like FEMA more efficient.

04:11Americans support cutting waste.

04:14Americans support improving federal response.

04:17But Americans sure as hell don't support doge-like cuts to vital places that can often be the

04:23difference between life and death.

04:25American people do not support this kind of chaos.

04:28This chainsaw approach to FEMA, to the National Weather Service, and to government at large.

04:37What Donald Trump and Kristi Noem are doing is chaos, and it's going to lead, unfortunately,

04:43to even more people getting hurt when the next disaster arrives.

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