Tom covers the federal response to climate change, focusing on FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers and other disaster-response agencies. He worked previously at USA Today, BuzzFeed News, Newsday and several local newspapers. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2012 and has won other national journalism awards including from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the National Press Club and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. He has a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said the Small Business Administration should "take a long, hard look" at its disaster loan program following an E&E News investigation that showed large racial disparities in how the loans were distributed.
The Small Business Administration needs to make more funding available to Black communities after natural disasters, experts said yesterday following an E&E News article that revealed large racial disparities in the agency's disaster loan program.
A federal program approves twice as many disaster loans in white areas than in Black communities. The practice is perpetuating disparities in wealth among Black Americans.
An expert panel created by Congress to study disaster-related deaths is now analyzing the COVID-19 pandemic and possible ways to improve the accuracy of the death count from the disease.
The United Nations' refugee agency cites climate change for the first time in its annual report on displaced persons, signaling a growing recognition that planetary warming aggravates the growing crisis of refugees and internally displaced persons.