FEMA defends no more help over Texas wildfires

[sonias]

AAS 5/4/11

FEMA defends no more help over Texas wildfires

AUSTIN, TEXAS — The Federal Emergency Management Agency defended its decision to refuse more assistance for Texas in the wake of devastating wildfires, saying Wednesday that the state has already received sufficient U.S. government help.

Late Tuesday, Gov. Rick Perry criticized the White House after learning that his April 16 request for a federal major disaster declaration and additional help had been rejected. Wildfires since November have blackened at least 2.2 million acres and damaged or destroyed more than 400 homes across the state, the governor said.

The federal government has already provided Texas with grants for response activities, FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Racusen told The Associated Press in a statement.

"FEMA has been in close contact with the state since the fires occurred, and based on the information they provided, it was determined that there was not a need for additional support at this time," Racusen said. "Over the past few months, FEMA has awarded over 20 fire management grants to the state, which provide targeted funding to help with firefighting efforts, including 16 in April alone."

There you go Slick Rick - keep biting the hand that feeds you - and it will stop feeding you if it can justify cutting you off.

Slick Rick will continue to use this as a political football anyway - saying the Obama administration is punishing Texas. You just wait for it.

:shrug:

[sonias]

1. First nut ball republican stone throw

Texas on the Potomac blog Houston Chronicle 5/4/11

Cornyn blasts Obama for denying Perry’s Texas wildfire aid request

(snip)
The Obama administration quickly responded that it has offered 22 different kinds of federal assistance to Texas in recent months.

Bottom line: Texas officials, caught in a state budget squeeze, want the federal government to send more aid to defray their costs. Federal officials, facing a record deficit, are being more selective in their use of “major disaster” declarations such as the one that followed the widespread devastation of Hurricane Ike or the recent Alabama tornadoes that killed hundreds of people.

Texas officials, including Gov. Rick Perry and Sens. Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, strongly believe that the feds are not doing enough.

“When nearly 7,000 individual wildfires burn through more than 2.2. million acres, result in loss of life, and destroy homes, businesses, farms and ranches across the state, it’s hard to understand how these conditions don’t spell ‘disaster’ for this administration,” Cornyn said this morning.

Cornyn and Hutchison yesterday sent a letter to Obama asking him to approve Perry’s previous request to declare Texas a disaster area. Their answer came swiftly: No.

The federal government is also in a budget squeeze, so it has to make choices. Alabama with the horrible loss of life is obviously a much more pressing concern for the Feds.

:kick:

[white cloud]

2. 3 day of Prayer maybe

These RWN need to all get together and pray about this "Act of God" they have created.

Maybe the "Preacher Rick of the 5 billion dollar Surplus church" & "Travesty Joe of a first degree church" can help these neocon RWN. BTW How did that go for you!!!


I feel really sorry for those whom are in true need. :rant:

[sonias]

3. Funny you should mention the prayer call

<parody warning for the Faux News types that believe anything they see on the Interweb tubes>

Texas Observer 5/2/11
A Proclamation from the Governor of Texas

MEMORANDUM
From: Office of the Governor of the State of Texas
To: All Non-Atheist Texans
Date: May 1, 2011
Re: A Proclamation of a Month of Prayer
for Revenue in the State of Texas


(snip)
WHEREAS, the Godless socialistic policies of Washington, D.C., have created a devastating global recession resulting in job losses, lower tax revenues and a general loss of Freedom across this land, affecting even the Economic Miracle that is the State of Texas; and

WHEREAS, these dire conditions emanating from Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Lloyd Doggett and Barack Hussein Obama are solely responsible for creating the most severe fiscal drought in the history of this devout and pennywise State; and

(snip)
WHEREAS, the Governor has discovered, to his considerable surprise and dismay, that federal stimulus programs, which balanced the State of Texas’ budget in 2009 and gave the Governor such a swell campaign issue to boot, have now been discontinued, wholly and purely out of spite and jealously toward the State of Texas; and

(snip)
WHEREAS, the proclamation thing worked so good with the wildfires, which were Acts of Providence having absolutely nothing to do with Al Gore’s made-up theory of global warming; and

WHEREAS, we don’t really need the whole $23 billion, but if He could just bless us with $10 or $15 billion big ones, it would make everybody feel a so much better and maybe even get the Governor back in the presidential mix for 2012; and

(snip)
WHEREAS, given the size of this thing we’re dealing with here, it seemed like we needed a whole month of praying on it to make sure we got results;

</end parody>

Pretty funny! :rofl:

Kudos to the Texas Observer for the funny!
:kick:

[white cloud]

4. That was funny

WHEREAS, we don’t really need the whole $23 billion, but if He could just bless us with $10 or $15 billion big ones, it would make everybody feel a so much better and maybe even get the Governor back in the presidential mix for 2012; and





:applause: :rofl:

[movie_girl99]

5. I was just talking about this

with my boss and we were curious if California only received grant money for the fires they have had there? Grant funds go for prevention and to help replenish resources. If that's all they got then why should Perry expect more?

[sonias]

10. Don't know about the CA fires this year but in 2007 they got declaration

Christian Science Monitor 4/25/11
Gov. Rick Perry sees Texas wildfires as statewide emergency. FEMA doesn't?

(snip)
Still, some note, North Carolina received a presidential disaster declaration on April 20, four days after a rash of tornadoes tore through that state. Similarly, it took President Bush four days after the October 2007 California wildfires began burning to declare it a national emergency.

(snip)
"We're not sure why there's been no federal declaration, though we do know that Texas is No. 1 on FEMA's list on the number of declarations they've had ," says Debbie Miley, executive director of the National Wildfire Suppression Association, an association of private firefighting contractors. Historically, Texas has more federal emergency declarations – 84 – than any other state; California is second with 78.

(snip)
A federal emergency declaration for this year's wildfire season means US taxpayers would pick up the tab for 75 percent of the total cost of the statewide fires. The total tab could run to $70 million. The state legislature, meanwhile, recently proposed slicing $34 million out of the Texas Forest Service's $109 million biennial budget, with most of the cuts coming from training and equipment grants for volunteer crews who deal with wildfires.

(snip)
"There is the irony because of the refusal of various federal funds, because of strings attached, that Texas didn't want to take," says Buchanan. "The governor has put himself a bit on his own petard, as it were, just in terms of the sudden discovery of a need for the help of national government after having lambasted it so resoundingly for so long."

:shrug:

[zbdent]

6. Wasn't Perry pointing out that they didn't "need" the federal money for

some project?

Also pointing out that the state of Texas had something like $9 billion in reserve or something?

Hey goodhair ... there's a "rainy day" (ironic, isn't it?) that you could dip into the "rainy day fund" to take care of ...

Unless there really isn't any money left ... wonder if guv Goodhair will "die" and not have any of his funds be able to be seized ...

[sonias]

8. Exactly if this isn't a reason to use the rainy day fund what is?

Funny thing is that we've found out recently after all their whining about not using the rainy day fund for non-emergencies that Rick Perry used it to set up his Enterprise Technology Fund (aka Perry's personal slush fund) with it. :eyes:

Houston 5/4/11

Perry has dipped into rainy day fund before

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry didn't always object to spending from the rainy day fund, and that's one thing that frustrates lawmakers who want to use more of the savings to fill holes in crucial services.

The last time the state faced a huge budget shortfall, in 2003, lawmakers appropriated nearly all the money then in the fund — including some, at Perry's behest, to create his pet Texas Enterprise Fund. In 2005, rainy day money was used for his Emerging Technology Fund. Just two years ago, Perry suggested using part of the rainy-day money for tax relief.

Now, in the face of a shortfall of up to $27 billion through the next two years, Perry has grudgingly agreed to spend just $3.1 billion from the $9.4 billion fund to plug a deficit this fiscal year — and no more, despite big cutbacks threatened in human services and education.

[sonias]

7. Texas, D.C. engage in political firefight over disaster aid

Houston Chronicle 5/5/11

Texas, D.C. engage in political firefight over disaster aid

WASHINGTON — A massive political fight broke out Wednesday over federal firefighting funding after the Obama administration rejected Texas Gov. Rick Perry's request to designate the state a federal disaster area.

Perry, along with Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, blasted President Barack Obama for denying the federal aid the state had requested to combat the thousands of wildfires that have scorched 2.2 million acres of Texas.

"I am dismayed that this administration has denied Texans the much-needed assistance they deserve," Perry declared after receiving notification of the rejection late Tuesday. "It is not only the obligation of the federal government, but its responsibility under law to help its citizens in times of emergency."

The Obama administration quickly responded that it has offered 25 different kinds of federal assistance to Texas in recent months.

Budget squeeze

Both Washington and Austin are fighting budget shortfalls as firefighters attempt to contain the flames. Texas officials, caught in a state budget squeeze, want the federal government to send more aid to defray their costs. Federal officials, facing a record deficit, are being careful in their use of "major disaster" declarations such as the one that followed the widespread devastation of Hurricane Ike or the recent Alabama tornadoes that killed hundreds of people.

What does Ron Paul think about it? What would Ayn Rand Do? Just saying....

:popcorn:

[sonias]

9. Texplainer: What Does It Cost to Fight Texas Wildfires?

Texas Tribune 4/27/11

Texplainer: What Does It Cost to Fight Texas Wildfires?

(snip)

So far, the estimated cost for fighting the wildfires is $49.2 million for this fiscal year, according to Robby DeWitt, a finance official with the Texas Forest Service, the state's lead wildfire response agency. In recent weeks, as the fires have gotten worse, costs have mounted at a rate of over $1 million per day.

Those costs will be shared among the state, local and federal governments, with the state likely to pay the bulk of the cost. In February, the Texas Forest Service asked the Legislature for an emergency appropriation for costs incurred since last session, and it has since been sending updated figures to the Legislative Budget Board each week as the fires continue. Also, "since we have no idea when the fires will end or what the final cost will be, we anticipate that there will be costs incurred for which we will seek an emergency appropriation during the next legislative session," DeWitt says.

(snip)

Separately, the cost of damaged property is also high, reaching about $150 million so far from the wildfires, according to the Insurance Council of Texas.

Bottom line: Recently, as the wildfires have worsened, the cost of fighting them has mounted at a rate of over $1 million per day. The state can expect to pay the majority, though local governments and the feds will also pay a share.

The rate of over $1 million per day! :wow:

[white cloud]

11. Thanks for all the infromation.

If we just had that 5 Billion dollar surplus that voted him in we would be doing fine.

Bet the State Insurance Board and Rick Perry are in lock down right now over "Greed is Good" till it time to pay Paul.

Not in My back yard

[sonias]

12. FEMA contradicts Perry on firefighting aid

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/FEMA-contradicts-Perry-on-firefighting-aid-1374525.php#ixzz1M4E8a1mm">San Antonio Express News 5/11/11
FEMA contradicts Perry on firefighting aid

AUSTIN — In the week since the federal government denied Gov. Rick Perry's request to have most of Texas granted major disaster status, leading Republicans have knocked FEMA's decision, leaving the impression Washington is not assisting the fight against the massive wildfires plaguing rural counties.

It is an impression contradicted by officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who awarded Texas its 26th grant Sunday to help cover the cost of firefighting efforts.

“This administration, through FEMA, has been working closely with the state throughout the duration of these fires, and we are supporting the firefighting efforts,” FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said.

Those 26 grants will reimburse 75 percent of the costs related to fighting designated fires throughout the state — the same reimbursement rate the state would have received if Perry's request for major disaster status had been accepted.

There you go - Texas is getting just as much aid as they would have under federal disaster recognition. What more does Perry want? He wants Obama to bow down to him. That's what he wants! :grr:

[white cloud]

13. Thanks

I needed that information

[kjackson227]

14. Slick Rick is trying to win political points at the expense...

of others' misfortune. Perry is lower than the belly of a snake.