There's a strong wind a-blowing. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) announced that it was cutting emergency training for its emergency managers and staff.
The announcement comes before hurricane season, which starts next month. David Richardson has been the acting administrator for FEMA since the organization fired his predecessor Cameron Hamilton. The Associated Press and CBS News reported that the FEMA head a call with employees where he laid down the law.
"Now this is the tough part," he said. He also had warnings for his opposition.
"Don't get in my way if you're those 20% of the people," said Richardson. "I know all the tricks."
"I will achieve the president's intent," added Richardson "I am as bent on achieving the president's intent as I was on making sure that I did my duty when I took my Marines to Iraq."
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FEMA Makes Changes
Richardson said that FEMA would put more of the costs on the states for disaster relief, saying there will be more "cost-sharing with the states." This comes after Trump called for the organization to be dismantled previously.
"President Trump has been very clear since the beginning that he believes that FEMA and its response in many, many circumstances has failed the American people and that FEMA as it exists today should be eliminated," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said earlier.
The announcement of the training cuts comes after shake ups in FEMA and its leadership. The organization has also fired more than 2,000 employees since January. With hurricane season coming, we'll see how things shake out.
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"It's not what FEMA needed ... 20 days from hurricane season ... to lose their administrator and to have more turbulence," said Pete Gaynor, who led the agency previously.
"In emergency management, when you're trying to solve crises, you need people to be able to speak freely," said Michael Coen, former FEMA's chief of staff.
"If the leadership, whether it's the secretary's office or the new acting FEMA administrator, has a proposal or an idea on how to do something, the senior staff that are briefing them should be able to feel free to express their concern on why we shouldn't do that," Coen said. "Squashing that free flow of collaboration ... could be detrimental. ... It could lead to bad outcomes where maybe lives could have been saved that weren't saved because there was not that collaboration and cooperation."
