Trump shifted $10,000,000 from FEMA to ICE budgets

[TomCADem]

11. TRUMP WANTS TO CUT FEMA BUDGET BEFORE THE NEXT MAJOR HURRICANE

Remember how in late 2017, Trump was pushing for cuts in FEMA to pay for his tax cuts?

https://www.newsweek.com/harvey-trump-fema-budget-disaster-preparedness-hurricane-657237

But the response to the next Harvey could face even stricter financial constraints if President Donald Trump gets his budgetary wishes for the 2018 fiscal year, which begins October 1. The president's budget blueprint calls for FEMA's budget for state and local grants to be cut by $667 million, saying that these grants are unauthorized or ineffective.

The program it explicitly calls out as lacking congressional authorization is the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program, and a second proposed change would require all preparedness grants to be matched in part by non-federal funds. All of FEMA's pre-disaster grants are meant to reduce federal spending after disasters, and according to the agency's website, there's evidence that $1 in mitigation spending saves $4 in later damages.

Trump's budget proposal also calls for the elimination of the National Flood Insurance Program run by FEMA, which provides affordable flood insurance. According to the proposal, the program costs the government $190 million; it is also $25 billion in debt, a number expected to rise rapidly after Harvey. According to The Washington Post, even with the program in place, about 80 percent of people who own homes in the area affected by the storm don't have flood insurance.

During the same press conference where Long spoke, a reporter asked about the funding cuts. The acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security evaded the question, saying that the response team's focus right now was strictly on helping Harvey survivors recover.