Hurricane season officially began yesterday, but let’s hope now more than ever that one doesn’t hit the US anytime soon. Because guess what? No one is in charge of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency that predicts and forecasts hurricanes ahead of a storm. And for an extra thrill, no one is in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) either, the agency that responds to disasters and offers relief.
According to NPR:
This year, key federal agencies that state and local governments and the public depend on still don’t have leaders. Nearly five months after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, NOAA, the agency that oversees the government’s weather forecasting, is still without an administrator, as is the agency that responds to disasters, FEMA…
FEMA is one of the agencies that have been targeted for significant cuts under the budget the president submitted to Congress. Under that budget, a program that helps states and communities take long-term measures to reduce losses from disasters, the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program, has been cut by more than 60 percent. The budget also eliminates funding for an ongoing effort to improve and redraw the nation’s flood maps.
“This is a very harmful approach that’s essentially saying that states are on their own, communities are on their own in terms of responding and recovering from these disasters,” says Rachel Cleetus, a climate policy expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “And the reality is, states just don’t have the budgets.”
At least Trump did nominate someone for FEMA at the end of April, according to Tampa Bay Times, but so far there has been no confirmation. As for NOAA, which predicts an above-average hurricane season this year, Trump hasn’t given the matter any attention.