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Forbes Breaking News
  • 5 months ago
During remarks on the Senate floor Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about FEMA reportedly laying off staff.
Transcript
00:00Mr. President, we continue to pray for the families of the 132 people now confirmed dead
00:06in Central Texas.
00:08We continue to pray for everyone still missing.
00:11We thank our heroic first responders who risked their lives to save those trapped in the storm.
00:19Now in the aftermath of the tragedy in Texas, some of us asked very necessary questions
00:26about how to prevent something like this from ever happening again.
00:30Did federal funding cuts hinder rescue efforts?
00:34Did staffing shortages make it harder to respond?
00:38Of course Donald Trump didn't like these questions.
00:41He threw a fit, a tantrum.
00:44He called them lies.
00:45He said they were inappropriate.
00:47That's how he talks.
00:49We know now why he threw a fit and acted so defensively because sadly we may well have
00:55been right.
00:57Donald Trump and Kristi Noem have spent months attacking FEMA, calling for its elimination,
01:04slashing its budget, hollowing out its workforce.
01:07And now their own chaos is catching up with them in the worst, worst way.
01:12Now they're trying to change their tune, saying they don't want to get rid of FEMA.
01:15A few months ago they were all for getting rid of it.
01:18Now they say they just want to change it.
01:21But there aren't enough walkbacks or pivots in the world to erase the truth.
01:26Their actions have unnecessarily harmed America's disaster response ecosystem.
01:33Last week I demanded an investigation into what role, if any, the administration's staff
01:39cuts to local National Weather Service stations played in this tragedy.
01:44It's now clear that the administration fired key FEMA personnel during, and sadly, after
01:51the tragedy.
01:52So today it's very clear.
01:55This is a systemic problem that exists in Texas, extends beyond Texas, beyond the National
02:02Weather Service, and across FEMA.
02:05Here are the facts about FEMA.
02:07A day after the Texas flooding, FEMA laid off workers, hundreds of call center workers.
02:13On July 7th, the agency received 16,000 calls and only answered 2,000 of them, around 16%.
02:23Secretary Noem, meanwhile, issued a directive on July 11th saying that all DHS contracts of
02:30over 100,000 had to be personally approved by her, according to the New York Times.
02:36Deployment including, according to the New York Times, deployment of search and rescue teams.
02:44Every one of them had to be signed off.
02:46This is not efficiency.
02:48This is adding red tape in the midst of a crisis, authored by Kristi Noem herself.
02:54Experts say this ill-advised decision very likely hindered recovery efforts.
03:00As it stands today, FEMA is operating with a quarter fewer staffers compared to 18 months
03:05ago.
03:06One quarter fewer.
03:08Including senior level officials, meteorologists, institutional experts, people who coordinate
03:14with public officials, and other levels of government to respond to natural disasters.
03:21In the middle of a natural disaster, Donald Trump and Kristi Noem are sowing chaos at FEMA,
03:27and their incompetence is putting lives in danger.
03:30They have this, them and the Doge people and so many around them, they have this fanatical
03:35dislike of all government.
03:37And so they just cut it.
03:39They don't even know what the effect will be.
03:41They don't even care.
03:43Just cut, cut, cut.
03:45Cut meteorologists who warn our people, our citizens, our farmers, our businesses of danger
03:52that might come.
03:53Cut them.
03:54Cut waste.
03:57Their recklessness is hurting rescue efforts.
04:02It's hurt the existing ones, and it's going to hurt more of them in the future unless they
04:05reverse themselves.
04:07We all support making agencies like FEMA more efficient.
04:11Americans support cutting waste.
04:14Americans support improving federal response.
04:17But Americans sure as hell don't support doge-like cuts to vital places that can often be the
04:23difference between life and death.
04:25American people do not support this kind of chaos.
04:28This chainsaw approach to FEMA, to the National Weather Service, and to government at large.
04:37What Donald Trump and Kristi Noem are doing is chaos, and it's going to lead, unfortunately,
04:43to even more people getting hurt when the next disaster arrives.
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