Democratic senators are warning that the Trump administration’s planned federal funding freeze could have sweeping implications for disaster relief programs, particularly in states that have recently been hit by fires or hurricanes.
“This broad and unlawful order is going to be immediately felt in a deeply harmful way,” California Sen. Adam Schiff told NOTUS. “It may particularly impact those that experience disasters, whether they’re in California or North Carolina or elsewhere, in terms of slowing down recovery assistance and more broadly.”
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily paused the funding freeze after a group of nonprofits sued over the anticipated effects of the stop in aid. But the uncertainty of what happens next is hanging over billions of dollars in federal funding.
As states like California and North Carolina work to recover from recent natural disasters, lawmakers say they’re eager to avoid any significant hurdle to federal relief funds as agencies work to contend with the memo’s sweeping directives.
Scores of grants provided by the Department of Homeland Security for disaster relief are to be reviewed under new executive guidelines, including: Flood Insurance, Flood Mitigation Assistance, Federal Disaster Assistance to Individuals and Households, Emergency Food and Shelter programs and others.
Rep. Judy Chu, whose district was heavily affected by the wildfires in California, blasted Trump’s approach of “chaos & confusion” to federal aid.
“Trump told victims of the wildfires in LA that he is with us ‘100%.’” Chu said on X. “But this decision puts disaster relief we are relying on at risk.”
Republicans agreed that any funding pause would put their recovering constituents in harm’s way, but insisted that interrupting immediate relief for victims was not the president’s goal.
Sen. Ted Budd said he didn’t know when any paused funds would be restarted, but cited Trump’s affinity for North Carolina.
“We’re going to sort through this for sure,” Budd told NOTUS. “It’s very important to Trump that North Carolinians get help. Knowing him for eight years, I know the state is important to him. It may be a blip, I don’t know how long the pause will last, but the funding is going to come back.”
Sen. Thom Tillis said he “can’t imagine” Trump would slow-walk disaster aid.
“It would be absurd to think that the president would knowingly cut off housing assistance for people displaced from their homes,” Tillis said. “We just have to sort through it and see how they ultimately implement [federal aid].”
“When you talk about immediate disaster relief aid, I just can’t imagine they’re going to tap the brakes on that in California and some of these other ones,” Tillis added. “If you’re talking about subsequent resilience funding, I could see where the delay makes sense to figure out how to spend it.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted during a press conference Thursday that the memo “does not affect individual assistance that’s going to Americans.”
But that hasn’t stopped the president’s order from sowing confusion locally.
Esther Manheimer, the mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, told NOTUS the city was still working to determine what impact the order would have on much-needed aid.
“The City is monitoring and attempting to determine the implications of this directive and whether there is any impact on federally funded City services and programs as well as the City’s Hurricane recovery efforts,” Manheimer said in a statement. “The City and its residents continue to have a great need for critical federal assistance for disaster response and recovery.”
Manheimer said the city expects federal relief assistance to be exempt from the funding pause, “however, the City will seek further clarity on this issue.”
The federal freeze — the latest in Trump’s actions to remake the government and roll back Biden-era initiatives — comes after the president’s visits to disaster-ridden states where he floated eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency entirely.
“I like the concept: When North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it, meaning the state takes care of it,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina. “To have a group of people come in from an area that don’t even know where they’re going in order to immediately solve a problem is something that never worked for me.”
Some Republicans side with the president, echoing the GOP’s ongoing frustration with FEMA’s spending and claims of partisanship in its response to recent natural disasters.
“When Helene came through, it was a mixed bag with FEMA,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said. “I just think taking a hard look at all these big-ticket items is probably good, I don’t know if there’s a better model.”
Budd said he “definitely” agreed with the president’s call to overhaul the agency.
In a statement on Friday, Tillis said that under the Biden administration, “FEMA’s failure to act and communicate swiftly put vulnerable families at risk with freezing temperatures outside.”
Rep. Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told NOTUS he had a private conversation with the president about his comments on the overhaul of FEMA and now thinks Trump’s suggestions are “worth studying.”
“In the case of North Carolina, we’re really good at responding to hurricanes and have had a lot of practice,” Hudson said. “So if you sent the money directly to our state, I think we would use it very effectively instead of spending money on a bureaucracy that slows things down.”
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Calen Razor and Mark Alfred are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows. Violet Jira, Torrence Banks, Riley Rogerson and Anna Kramer contributed reporting.