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We Need the Federal Government to Protect Us from Climate Chaos [1]

['Kenny Stancil']

Date: 2025-07-07 19:20:22+00:00

Blog Post | July 7, 2025

The deadly Texas floods will not be the last manifestation of extreme weather turbocharged by fossil fuel pollution. In an era of escalating climate threats, we need a stronger public sector with more resources to mitigate risks, help people weather storms, and adapt for the future.

Since Friday, more than 80 people, including dozens of young summer camp attendees, have died in Central Texas from flooding intensified by the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis. With search-and-rescue operations ongoing and active flash flood warnings in the region, the death toll is expected to continue climbing.

Over the weekend, Texas officials quickly tried to blame the carnage on inadequate warnings from the National Weather Service (NWS), which has been gutted by the Trump administration. President Trump himself lied about this, too. When asked if he thinks the federal government should rehire recently fired meteorologists, he erroneously claimed that “nobody expected” this flooding and that NWS staff “didn’t see it.”

However, NWS provided accurate forecasts and warnings despite everything that Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE wrecking crew have been doing to impair the agency.

That’s not to suggest that the Trump administration’s ill-advised cuts to the federal forecasting apparatus couldn’t have contributed to lethal havoc on the ground. Local NWS offices were missing key officials, which may have undermined swift and cohesive coordination between forecasters and local emergency managers.

Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization (the union representing NWS workers), told The New York Times that the agency’s San Angelo office, which covers many of the hardest-hit areas, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster, and a meteorologist-in-charge.

The nearby NWS office in San Antonio “also had significant vacancies, including a warning coordination meteorologist and science officer,” the Times reported. “Staff members in those positions are meant to work with local emergency managers to plan for floods, including when and how to warn local residents and help them evacuate.” The warning coordination meteorologist reportedly left on April 30, accepting the Trump administration’s early retirement offer. This runs counter to Trump’s weekend claim that his policies didn’t lead to vacancies.

In early May, CNN reported that 30 of NWS’s 122 weather forecast offices around the country were missing a meteorologist-in-charge. Former and current agency personnel made clear that the absence of chief meteorologists and other leaders could jeopardize timely communications between forecasters, the media, and local emergency managers.

Texas Officials Compounded Trump’s Recklessness

Making matters worse, Texas lawmakers earlier this year refused to pass a bill that would have improved local disaster warning systems. Rob Kelly, the top elected official in Kerr County, the flood-prone jurisdiction where most of the deaths have occurred, said that officials considered installing a warning system years ago but declined due to the purportedly high cost.

In the aftermath of increasingly common climate disasters, it becomes clear why, when someone asserts that investments in risk reduction are “expensive,” the response should be, “compared to what?”

According to The Guardian, “Questions are also being asked” about whether Kerr County officials “had approved development along the river bank that may have skirted rules issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that control where homes may be built in areas vulnerable to flooding.”

It should be noted here that advocates of the so-called abundance agenda, which we have warned is an attempt to launder unpopular neoliberal policies, have repeatedly held up Texas as a model to be emulated, implying that circumventing environmental regulations to build more housing is sound policy.

Similar Disasters Are Coming. Trump Must Be Held Accountable

Amid the flooding on July 4, Trump signed into law the GOP’s budget reconciliation bill, which will curtail clean energy and expand the fossil fuel combustion that supercharges extreme weather. A few days earlier, the Trump administration submitted a budget request to Congress that would eliminate all climate research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the parent agency of NWS.

On July 5, Trump approved Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) request for a major disaster declaration. While it remains to be seen, the federal response could be hobbled due to Trump and Musk’s ongoing war on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

In short, the Trump administration is simultaneously exacerbating climate change and eroding society’s ability to understand, prepare for, and respond to it. This is precisely the opposite of what should be happening right now.

The deadly Texas floods will not be the last manifestation of extreme weather turbocharged by fossil fuel pollution. In an era of escalating climate threats, we need a stronger public sector with more resources to mitigate risks, help people weather storms, and adapt for the future.

For too long, neoliberal Democrats have joined Republicans in bashing the government and calling for deregulation, austerity, and privatization. In February, Matthew Yglesias went so far as to encourage Democrats to “channel their inner DOGE,” portraying party elites’ abandonment of FDR’s New Deal politics—from Carter to Clinton to Obama—as a step in the right direction.

In fact, we sorely need a return to the Rooseveltian ideal of big government that works for working people, including by phasing out the fossil fuel industry and protecting us from increasingly frequent and severe storms, heatwaves, and wildfires.

In the meantime, congressional Democrats must not neglect their oversight duties. They ought to launch investigations and ruthlessly question the Trump administration’s culpability in the Texas flooding disaster.

Here are some of the Trump administration’s most notable attacks on NOAA and NWS:

In February, Musk’s DOGE wrecking crew infiltrated NOAA. NOAA is a world-renowned climate research and meteorology institution, providing accurate forecasts and severe weather warnings, among other lifesaving services.

The Trump administration pushed out more than 1,000 NOAA workers by the first week of March. More than 800 so-called probationary employees were fired on February 27, including more than 100 in the National Weather Service (NWS). Amid the chaos, around 500 additional NOAA workers accepted a “deferred resignation” offer, about 170 of whom worked at NWS. This means roughly 10% of NOAA’s 12,000-person staff, including approximately 6% of the 4,800-strong workforce at NWS, were missing right at the start of tornado season.



In March, NOAA announced that another 1,029 workers would be laid off later due to the Trump administration’s “reduction in force” mandate. Employees had until April 17 to decide whether to take early retirements or buyouts. NOAA approved more than 1,000 exit requests from eligible workers, including roughly 300 from NWS.

As of May 1, 30 of NWS’s 122 weather forecast offices were missing a chief meteorologist, jeopardizing timely communications between forecasters, the media, and local emergency managers.

Due to Trump and Musk’s purge of NOAA, eight NWS forecast offices ceased overnight operations this spring, undermining the agency’s ability to monitor and communicate hazards around the clock.

As a result of Trump and Musk’s attacks on NOAA, NWS has been forced to reduce weather balloon launches used to collect essential data, degrading the quality of forecasts.

Experts warned in March that due to understaffing, NOAA’s “hurricane hunters” may not be able to conduct 24/7 flight operations this year, which could lead to less accurate forecasts and delayed evacuation warnings.

As of May 20, more than 200 NOAA contracts remained unsigned due to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s insistence on personally reviewing any contract over $100,000. As a result, the agency’s work “has ground to a halt,” according to one official.

In May, Trump proposed cutting NOAA’s budget by 24% for the next fiscal year, which would eliminate nearly all of the agency’s earth system science and climate research. If Congress approves Trump’s budget request, it would significantly decrease hurricane forecasting accuracy; end the long-term climate monitoring that farmers depend on; endanger coastal communities who need trustworthy information about tides, water pollution, flood risks, and sea-level rise; weaken national and global understandings of climate change; and ruin the livelihoods of scientists, with deadly downstream impacts.



At the start of hurricane season on June 1, 15 NWS forecast offices along the hurricane-prone Gulf of Mexico were understaffed.

In early June, NOAA lost access to a fleet of Salidrones, a key hurricane forecasting tool, because the Trump administration was delinquent in sending out a request for contract proposals.

In late June, the Pentagon announced that it would soon stop processing and delivering data that NOAA needs for hurricane forecasts, endangering millions of people nationwide.

Here are some of the Trump administration’s most notable attacks on FEMA:

Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem have called numerous times for the abolition of FEMA or for the devolution of its responsibilities to the states.

The Trump administration has gutted FEMA’s staff, pushing out rank-and-file workers as well as highly qualified leaders. The result is a decimated agency overseen by people without significant disaster management experience. By the end of February, the Trump administration had already pushed out more than 1,000 FEMA employees. On February 17, FEMA fired 200 workers. In addition, the White House laid the groundwork to fire more staff who have worked on issues related to climate change or social justice. On February 27, more than 800 FEMA employees accepted DOGE’s “deferred resignation” offer, bringing the total number of agency workers pushed out by the Trump administration above 1,000. As of late April, more than 1,000 additional FEMA employees had sought early retirements or buyouts amid DOGE-inflicted chaos. This means that one-quarter to one-third of FEMA’s full-time staff—including many coordinating officers tasked with leading large-scale disaster responses—was missing just weeks before the start of hurricane season. FEMA had roughly half as many staff members trained to respond to disasters in May 2025 as it did in May 2024. On the first day of hurricane season, FEMA had almost 800 fewer disaster workers available compared with a year prior and about 3,100 fewer than on June 1, 2022. In May, FEMA announced the departure of 16 senior executives. That included the agency’s acting deputy administrator, MaryAnn Tierney, who cited the Trump administration’s attacks on FEMA in her resignation letter. By early June, following mass layoffs and the resignation of top officials, all of FEMA’s most senior positions were held by homeland security personnel with little to no disaster management expertise. On June 11, one day after Trump outlined plans to phase out FEMA, Jeremy Greenberg, a career staffer who coordinated the agency’s responses to major disasters, resigned.



The Trump administration has used multiple methods, including onerous reviews of contracts, to prevent or stall the disbursement of congressionally appropriated funds even after federal courts have ordered the White House to stop. On January 28, Noem issued a memo to freeze all grants to nonprofits that “touch in any way on immigration.” On February 5, DOGE agents infiltrated FEMA and reportedly gained access to the agency’s sensitive data about disaster survivors and communities. Musk’s inaccurate claims about FEMA spending, made on February 10, further disrupted the flow of disaster aid. On February 11, a senior FEMA official told subordinates to freeze funding hours after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to cease such pauses. On February 14, Hamilton ordered the agency to review “all disaster relief programs that may indirectly or incidentally” help undocumented immigrants. On February 19, Noem ordered FEMA and other agencies under DHS to cut off funding to so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions” that don’t comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants. On February 28, FEMA imposed a “manual review” of all grants, effectively pausing more than $100 billion in payments. As of March 28, FEMA had frozen nearly $10 billion in disaster aid for nonprofits due to Trump’s unlawful impoundment of funding that could help undocumented migrants. Since March, DHS has made the allocation of funding—including the Emergency Management Performance Grant program used to train and pay state and local emergency management staff—contingent on cooperation with Trump’s mass deportation blitz. On June 11, Noem began requiring that every contract or grant valued over $100,000 be sent to her for approval. Current and former FEMA officials warned that the directive will paralyze the agency’s work.



The Trump administration has quashed FEMA’s work related to hazard mitigation, climate adaptation, and resilience as well as efforts to minimize unequal disaster impacts. On February 4, Trump’s FEMA said that it would stop enforcing the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard. The rule stipulates that when public buildings in flood zones are damaged, they must be rebuilt in a way that prevents future flood damage to qualify for FEMA funding. On February 14, Noem ordered FEMA to halt work related to climate change and to eliminate the use of climate-related terms, citing Trump’s executive orders. In February, the Trump administration ordered FEMA to halt work related to strengthening building codes. On April 4, the Trump administration eliminated the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program and revoked more than $3 billion for hazard mitigation and adaptation projects that had been approved but not completed. The agency also removed a notice announcing $600 million in Flood Mitigation Assistance funding for 2025. In April and May, Trump’s FEMA removed mentions of equity, income, social vulnerability, and climate change from its Local Mitigation Planning Policy Guide and its State Mitigation Planning Policy Guide. This increases the odds that low-income and other vulnerable communities will be overlooked when disasters hit as well as when jurisdictions develop their next five-year mitigation plans. On May 2, FEMA ended door-to-door canvassing, gravely endangering vulnerable populations.



As a result of the Trump administration’s assault on FEMA, employees say the agency is ill-prepared to respond to hurricanes and other disasters. One FEMA official said that “March is typically when we’re finalizing hurricane plans,” but because of the Trump administration’s attacks on the agency, “we’re not preparing.” On May 12, an internal FEMA review declared that the agency was “not ready” for the start of the hurricane season. On May 15, two weeks before the start of hurricane season, acting FEMA administrator David Richardson privately acknowledged that the agency didn’t yet have a fully formed disaster response plan. On May 21, Richardson rescinded the agency’s strategic plan for 2022-2026, arguing that it “contains goals and objectives that bear no connection to FEMA accomplishing its mission.” On May 22, an internal memo sent to FEMA senior leadership warned that the agency is at “high risk” of having “critical functions” fail due to “significant personnel losses in advance of the 2025 Hurricane Season.” On June 2, Richardson told staff that he was unaware that the United States has a hurricane season.



In addition to the Trump administration’s attacks on NOAA and FEMA, two other developments—one at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and another at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—warrant attention:

In April, the Trump administration moved to terminate the leases of 25 USGS Water Science Centers. Those centers employ scientists who share hydrological data with NWS for flood warnings, assist FEMA with flood response, and monitor for “forever chemical” pollution as well as drought conditions.

On April 18, the EPA shut down a website tracking the locations of thousands of dangerous chemical plants, meaning that if one of those facilities is damaged during a tornado, flood, hurricane, or wildfire, the public may not know right away.

For more:

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[1] Url: https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/trump-central-texas-flooding-july-2025/

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