December 14 – Rick Velasquez wants to appoint President-elect Donald Trump to the Federal Emergency Management Administration for belittling his elderly sister after her Roswell home was flooded.
Trump can become a “mad dog” on certain issues, he added, and he would like to see improving FEMA be one of them.
“This is not right,” he said. ’86 year old lady; the only thing she has to consider is $700 from FEMA. So right now I have some kind of bitterness.”
He’s not the only person frustrated with the agency.
As New Mexico grapples with fire and flooding in Ruidoso, extreme weather in Chaves County and the ongoing impact of the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, many in the state have recently had to deal with FEMA. As the deadline for filing a claim for damages from the historic wildfire in Northern New Mexico comes to an end, the oft-criticized federal agency will soon face a leadership change.
Although Trump has not announced who he wants to head FEMA, Politico reported earlier this month that he is considering Garret Graves, a Republican congressman from Louisiana who is widely seen as one of the most informed members of Congress when it comes to disaster relief.
Graves was critical of FEMA’s response to several disasters. The U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week unanimously approved a bill he co-authored to speed up the agency’s reimbursements to local governments and electric cooperatives. The bill would require the agency to pay interest on the refunds.
“FEMA has no incentive to be efficient,” Graves said in a statement. “The Inspector General recently found that the disaster agency had $71 billion in outstanding reimbursement claims from state and local governments – some of which are more than a decade old. If the costs of disasters are not paid, our towns, cities and parishes often have to make cuts to other governments. This means that affected communities are hit once by the disaster and hit again by FEMA.”
Whether there will be major changes in disaster response when Trump comes to power in January remains uncertain. Some Biden administration officials in recent weeks have raised concerns that Trump could divert FEMA funds to border enforcement, as he did in 2019, or pushed back against conservatives who have proposed letting states handle disaster aid.
Republicans have recently criticized the organization for its responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton and for its Shelter and Services Program, which provides food and temporary shelter to migrants crossing the border.
But it’s not just Republicans who have criticized the agency. U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat, recently questioned FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell about the slow response times to the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire.
“I am extremely disappointed that so many New Mexicans continue to wait for the relief and compensation the federal government owes them through the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Claims Office,” Heinrich said in November. “What else can FEMA do so that those who lost everything in the fire are not the last to receive compensation?”
