Chuck Schumer Slams Kristi Noem, Calls For Investigation On FEMA Cuts Amid Texas Floods

During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about cuts to FEMA.

Transcript

00:00On FEMA, search and rescue efforts continue in Central Texas 11 days after the devastating

00:08July 4th flooding.

00:11We continue to pray, to pray for every life lost.

00:15We pray for the families, and we honor the brave first responders who have been on the

00:20ground day after day after day.

00:25But honoring those we lost demands accountability.

00:28It demands making sure this never happens again.

00:32The more we learn about what went wrong, the more one thing becomes painfully clear.

00:37Donald Trump, Secretary Noem, and the Department of Homeland Security have failed, failed in

00:43their basic duty to protect Americans from natural disasters.

00:49After spending months demonizing FEMA, after openly calling for it to be dismantled, after

00:55shedding thousands of staff and canceling billions in funding, Trump and Noem's disastrous policies

01:04have come back to haunt Americans battered by disasters.

01:08This latest tragedy happened in Texas, but the problems go far beyond Texas.

01:13This is a nationwide FEMA failure.

01:16A systemic issue across the agency that Donald Trump has made much, much worse.

01:24So today, I'm calling on the Comptroller General of the GAO, the Government Accountability Office,

01:30to immediately investigate, one, how FEMA's funding cuts, staffing cuts, and policy changes contributed

01:38to the failures in Texas, and two, to assess the risks their actions pose for future disaster

01:45response nationwide.

01:49The facts are alarming.

01:51FEMA contracts stalled while survivors called for help.

01:55Vital staff positions sat vacant.

01:58Rescue and recovery efforts were bogged down by bureaucratic choke points.

02:02These aren't just breakdowns.

02:04They may constitute a dereliction of duty by those entrusted to protect the public in times

02:11of crisis.

02:12The American people have a right to know.

02:15Did these reckless decisions cost lives?

02:17Are we now more vulnerable when the next storm, fire, or flood strikes, wherever it strikes?

02:24A comprehensive and urgent review is not just warranted.

02:28It is essential.

02:30Americans do not support the administration making radical doge cuts to agencies like FEMA.

02:38These cuts have devastating consequences in life and death situations like a natural disaster.

02:45Americans do not support chaos from the government when disasters strike.

02:49They do not support red tape that leaves families stranded and communities battered.

02:54Americans do not support a lot of workers under people otherwise than possible, they are

02:56only trying to make radical action.

02:59They do not support those.

03:01They do not support their actions like a natural disaster.

03:06They do not support their actions like a natural disaster.

03:08They do not support them when there is a natural disaster.

03:10It is essentially what they do.