Texas leaders are warning that cuts to FEMA and stalled state investments could leave millions unprotected as hurricane season intensifies. They echoed the failures of Katrina and the 2021 winter freeze and called funding cuts a dangerous retreat from federal disaster preparedness.
As the Gulf Coast braces for storm season, the message from local, federal and former officials was clear: Texas cannot afford to gamble with its emergency preparedness. Without federal support and state accountability, they warned, the next disaster could be deadlier than the last.
On a press call, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, Congressman Al Green and former FEMA Public Affairs Director Rafael Lemaitre warned that recent cuts by President Donald Trump’s administration threaten to leave Texans unprotected in the face of increasingly severe storms, floods and freezes.
What did they say?
Calvert, the dean of the Bexar County Commissioners Court, opened with a stark reminder: 13 residents of his precinct died in June from flash flooding. He said Texas’ “rainy day” fund, the largest of its kind in the nation, has gone unused while communities struggle to finance basic emergency infrastructure. The fund, known as the Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF), is expected to rise sharply to $27.1 billion by the end of fiscal 2025, up from $10.7 billion at the end of fiscal 2022.
“Texas has more money in its rainy day fund than almost every state in the United States combined,” Calvert said. “Whether it was storm Uri, the February freeze in 2021, or a number of emergencies that are truly rainy days for communities, we’ve seen the state benefit the bankers holding onto that money a lot more…that is shameful.”
He described how Bexar County has had to invest $20 million of its own funds into high-alert flood systems, often without state reimbursement. Calvert also pointed to the 2021 winter freeze, when local officials scrambled to house and feed seniors in powerless apartments while the state offered little support.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do and we’ve got leadership that needs to understand that it’s not only Republican areas that should be serviced by emergency services,” he said. “We don’t look at what your partisanship is when you’re in an emergency. It is time that we get ahead of some of these things and deploy emergency systems with microgrids.”
FEMA’s future
Congressman Green took the critique further, warning that federal protections are under direct attack. He said the Trump administration has already frozen $4.6 billion in disaster mitigation funds, cut FEMA staffing and floated eliminating the agency altogether.
“There is, there is no need for us to eliminate the one agency that has the experience and the expertise to manage a disaster,” Green said. “FEMA is there to help us with the preparation. We have to fight to protect this organization and prevent the President from eliminating it, because if he can, he will.”
Green argued that FEMA’s role extends well beyond storm recovery. From coordinating with the Red Cross to ensuring fuel, food and shelter distribution alongside churches, the agency provides lifelines no state can replace. He also criticized partisan disparities in disaster relief approvals, noting that Democratic governors receive aid less often than their Republican counterparts.
Stakes
Lemaitre, who led FEMA communications during the Obama administration and later advised Harris County through multiple disasters, said the administration’s cuts have already weakened the system.
“When folks think about FEMA, they think of windbreakers responding to major disasters,” Lemaitre said. “Even on days when there aren’t ongoing disasters, FEMA has a vital role in supporting states and local communities…All of these things were gutted and actually closed down at the beginning of the Trump administration, forcing 7,000 first responders from across the country to miss out on that vital training that makes our communities more resilient.”
He warned of a “brain drain” inside FEMA, with permanent staff leaving the agency. Experienced regional administrators with decades of institutional knowledge have stepped down, leaving gaps that cannot be quickly replaced.
Lemaitre also drew comparisons to Hurricane Katrina, when FEMA was underfunded, leading to one of the worst federal disaster responses in modern history. Without course correction, he said, the nation risks “painfully relearning” those lessons.
“That was a bad time for emergency management,” he added. “FEMA lacked agency, power and influence and we saw the results of that. We saw a bungled response to a major disaster…I hope not, but it may be the case that we were gonna have to relearn the tough lessons of Katrina, should we have a national catastrophic event like that again.”
Call to action
All three speakers urged Texans to urge elected officials at every level to resist FEMA cuts and demand more proactive investment from the state. They also framed the issue as nonpartisan, noting that disasters strike regardless of politics.
Green closed with a blunt assessment.
“Voting makes a difference,” he said. “We really have to give some thought to who’s going to have the ability to direct these funds.”
