Washington, D.C.—The following are opening remarks from Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Rick Larsen (D-WA) and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Greg Stanton (D-AZ) during today’s hearing titled, “Fixing Emergency Management: Examining Improvements to FEMA’s Disaster Response.”
Video of Larsen’s and Stanton’s opening statements are here and here.
More information on the hearing can be found here.
Ranking Member Larsen:
Thank you, Subcommittee Chairman Perry and Ranking Member Stanton, for convening today’s hearing on FEMA.
The importance of this hearing cannot be overstated; the recent tragedy in Texas was a devastating reminder that disaster preparation and response is a life or death matter.
To quote former FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor, “emergency management is locally executed, state-managed, and federally supported.”
The system was created so the federal government can step in when local capacity and capability to respond to disasters has been overwhelmed.
That is how emergency management has worked since President Carter created FEMA by Executive Order in 1979.
Now the current Administration has stated its desire to eliminate FEMA as it exists today and have states lead disaster response.
But states already lead disaster response. That is how disaster response works!
Dismantling FEMA does not empower states. It just slashes the federal safety net that serves as a backstop for critical phases of emergency management.
This will not streamline disaster response, and it will unnecessarily inflate the impact and cost of deadly disasters.
And, it appears so far that 434 of the 435 members in the House of Representatives agree that FEMA should not be eliminated. An outstanding majority for this body.
Every congressional hearing on FEMA this year has concluded that FEMA should continue.
I expect this hearing will reach the same conclusion.
Despite clear Congressional intent to the contrary, here are just some of the actions the Administration has taken to disrupt and dismantle FEMA since taking office:
- Allowed DOGE unlawful access to FEMA systems including databases with disaster survivors’ private information;
- Directed FEMA to eliminate all climate change related activities and terminology;
- Fired 200 probationary workers and pressured over 2,000 more to quit or accept early retirement packages;
- Halted all FEMA work related to resilient building codes and construction standards;
- Stopped enforcement of the federal flood risk management standard, putting taxpayers back on the hook to rebuild infrastructure that is likely to flood again;
- Cancelled FEMA’s pre-disaster mitigation program known as BRIC despite clear evidence that investments in mitigation pay for themselves many times over;
- Ignored statutory deadlines to facilitate FEMA disaster preparedness grants;
- Mandated a wasteful and inefficient manual review of all grant disbursements, freezing over $100 billion in payments;
- Ordered every grant and contract over $100,000 be personally approved by Secretary Noem before disbursement; and
- Ended door-to-door canvassing to help survivors register for federal aid after disasters.
The culmination of these efforts paints a scary picture that this country is not ready for disaster season.
In 2017, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria stretched the system—a similar hurricane season this year would break the system.
After reading your testimony, Mr. Richardson, I am glad to hear that we both agree FEMA should exist.
That is why I have worked with Chairman Graves to draft the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans Act.
Our bill will:
- Restore FEMA to an independent cabinet level agency;
- Create a new Public Assistance program that gives incentives to states to prioritize resilience and rebuild quickly;
- Improve FEMA’s Individual Assistance program for disaster survivors by creating a universal application for federal assistance—making it easier for survivors to access resources for basic needs and housing; and
- Restructure FEMA’s mitigation programs to make funding accessible with greater speed and reliability.
It does many other things, and it is based on bipartisan work of this Committee and has bipartisan proposals from folks on this Committee and off of this Committee.
We will be introducing the bill this week, after months of painstaking review and incorporation of stakeholder feedback. We’re not waiting for the FEMA Review Council—we don’t need to wait for a FEMA review council—we’ve been reviewing FEMA for a long time, and that’s why the FEMA Act is getting introduced.
I look forward to moving this legislation through Committee and to the House floor before, hopefully, having it passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law.
That is the process of making major changes to federal government agencies.
Today, we are going to have a serious discussion on the current state of the nation’s disaster readiness posture.
There will be some tough questions, Mr. Richardson, but please do not think we are asking them because we want you or FEMA to fail.
We all desperately want and need you to succeed so Americans are safe from disasters.
Thank you for being here, and I look forward to your testimony.
Ranking Member Stanton:
Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing and focusing our mission to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Every Democrat on this panel accepts that challenge, and I hope we can work together in a bipartisan way to get it done.
The news out of Texas is heartbreaking. On July 4, flash floods swept through Kerrville and nearby communities, claiming 135 lives, including 37 children.
We have learned the faces and stories of the victims: young girls whose dreams were stolen, camp staff who gave their lives leading children to safety, a father who punched through a window to save his family before bleeding to death from his injuries, and two little sisters, swept away together, later found holding hands.
So many grieving neighbors and families on the ground have been working around the clock in response to this disaster. To those brave women and men, we see you, we thank you, and we will not forget your heroism.
Meanwhile, the acting FEMA Administrator, David Richardson, was missing in action. For the first 48 hours… the most critical window for search and rescue…he never visited FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center. For more than a week, he stayed away from Texas. And for ten days, he made no public statement about the tragedy. Not even a word of sympathy or reassurance to the public.
When he finally appeared in Texas on July 12, it felt like a box-checking exercise to quiet his critics. He stayed only a few hours. But in his rush, Mr. Richardson failed to check the most important box: basic human decency.
This tragedy forces a hard question: did the FEMA Administrator fulfill his legal duty? Did he fulfill his moral duty? Did the Administrator sitting before us do everything he could to save lives?
The FEMA Administrator is the primary federal coordinator for disaster response. That means anticipating needs, acting proactively, and moving resources swiftly, even without waiting for a state request. FEMA’s own National Response Framework demands proactive search and rescue. These reforms were put in place after Hurricane Katrina, when federal failures cost lives. Yet nearly 20 years later, history has tragically repeated itself.
Secretary Noem required her personal sign-off for every contract over 100,000 dollars. That bottleneck delayed Urban Search and Rescue teams for more than 72 hours. By the time many reached Texas, no one had been found alive in days. Days!
On July 5, less than 24 hours after the tragedy, FEMA’s call center contract expired because of this $100,000 sign-off policy. The result? Seventy percent of calls from survivors went unanswered. Families desperate for shelter and aid were met with silence. Can you imagine losing a family member, losing your home, and then not having your call unanswered when you’re looking for a lifeline?
Yet on July 11, with over 100 people still missing and search teams working behind them, President Trump and Secretary Noem called it “the best FEMA response ever.” All while their administration was working to dismantle FEMA, the very agency whose workers were still risking their lives to save others.
And according to CNN, FEMA’s search and rescue chief resigned in frustration over the Texas response. DHS bureaucratic hurdles cost his team critical time and likely lives.
This committee has a duty to uncover why FEMA failed to meet its obligations and ensure no community ever faces these failures again. I look forward to questioning Mr. Richardson about these stunning breakdowns in leadership and how we fix them.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.