State officials told congressional investigators they are concerned about the uncertainty created by President Donald Trump’s plans to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency, saying that major changes may come to the disaster agency before states can prepare for them.
The officials told the Government Accountability Office they are struggling to plan for taking more responsibility over natural disasters, a requirement Trump has vowed to initiate but has yet to clarify. The state officials expressed worry about “the uncertainty of FEMA’s future role.”
“It is challenging to plan in the absence of clear, consistent, and accurate guidance,” the GAO wrote in a report Thursday that summarized concerns it heard from state leaders.
Those concerns are likely to mount after the White House canceled a Dec. 11 meeting that was supposed to be used to announce recommendations for overhauling the agency. A new meeting has not been scheduled for the FEMA Review Council, which Trump created in May and ordered to complete a final report by November.
