Top congressional Democrats are rallying behind the nation’s disaster agency as they protest the Trump administration’s plans to shrink the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Senior Democrats on five House committees said in a statement that “it is appalling, but not surprising” that the administration is planning to shutter or minimize FEMA, which provides tens of billions of dollars each year to people and communities that were struck by catastrophes.
The administration has frozen nearly $10 billion in disaster aid to hospitals and other nonprofits as it scrutinizes FEMA programs for potentially helping undocumented migrants.
“Dismantling the agency is out of the question,” the Democrats said after POLITICO’s E&E News reported that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem privately supported shrinking or dissolving FEMA.
