On Friday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) argued that more disaster relief money and responsibility should be directed to the states and away from FEMA, but there might be a need for a smaller set of FEMA personnel to assist states that lack the needed experience to deal with major disasters instead of totally eliminating the agency.
Edwards said, “I think that when we really sit down and start to put this on a whiteboard, we’re going to realize that there are needs for some personnel in Washington, D.C., with FEMA. But we don’t need 20,000 folks there to fail the people that they are serving. I believe we should more send the relief money to the states and leave it up to the governors to decide what is best to help their state recover.”
He added, “[T]here are states that might not have the experience that [is] necessary to deal with major disasters. That’s why there should be, maybe, a very slim set of personnel in Washington, D.C. to give them the advice and the backing when it is necessary. I also believe that states, knowing that it would become their responsibility, would be far better prepared for the next natural disaster, because, now, they’re trained to sit back on their heels and wait for the federal government to come in. And we’ve seen what a miserable failure that that has been through this disaster.”
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