Lauren Sommer
Appearances
Up First from NPR
Migrants Leave Guantanamo, Israeli Hostages Update, Changes at FEMA
So it's more than 200 employees. That's what the Department of Homeland Security told me, and they oversee FEMA. These are workers on probationary status, which basically means they were within one year of taking the job. But, you know, I spoke to people that had been at the agency more than a decade, and they were only on probationary status because they accepted a promotion for a new job.
Up First from NPR
Migrants Leave Guantanamo, Israeli Hostages Update, Changes at FEMA
You know, one told me the firings were like doing surgery with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel.
Up First from NPR
Migrants Leave Guantanamo, Israeli Hostages Update, Changes at FEMA
Right, yeah. So when disasters happen, it's really all hands on deck at FEMA. They put hundreds of people on the ground to connect disaster victims and, you know, enroll them for financial assistance. You know, that's for things like renting a place to live or rebuilding long term. Those FEMA staff come from every part of FEMA.
Up First from NPR
Migrants Leave Guantanamo, Israeli Hostages Update, Changes at FEMA
And I talked to Michael Cohn, who was FEMA's chief of staff under the Biden administration, and he says the agency was already understaffed.
Up First from NPR
Migrants Leave Guantanamo, Israeli Hostages Update, Changes at FEMA
Last year, during Hurricane Helene, FEMA had to use employees from other federal agencies to fill the gap because the need was so great from disaster survivors.
Up First from NPR
Migrants Leave Guantanamo, Israeli Hostages Update, Changes at FEMA
Yeah, he said disaster recovery is better left to the states, and he's actually creating a council that will review and potentially overhaul FEMA. You know, local and state governments actually already run disaster recovery, and they request that FEMA come in. But aspects of FEMA's work are already changing because, you know, one thing the agency does is help develop building codes.
Up First from NPR
Migrants Leave Guantanamo, Israeli Hostages Update, Changes at FEMA
These are the construction standards that help homes survive floods and hurricane winds. FEMA experts had already written recommendations about how to strengthen those codes. They were submitted to the International Code Council, which is an association that updates the codes every three years, and then local and state governments adopt them.
Up First from NPR
Migrants Leave Guantanamo, Israeli Hostages Update, Changes at FEMA
But FEMA has asked for its name to be taken off those recommendations. According to people who are involved with that work and spoke with me, they want to remain anonymous over concerns about retribution from the Trump administration. And FEMA did not respond to our questions about why they made this request.
Up First from NPR
Migrants Leave Guantanamo, Israeli Hostages Update, Changes at FEMA
Yeah, yeah. These are recommendations that come out of actual disasters, you know, seeing what hasn't worked. It's things like maybe raising up a house a little bit so floodwaters don't come in. And research really shows they add about one to two percent of the construction costs, but they've saved billions of dollars in damage that would have happened otherwise.
Up First from NPR
Migrants Leave Guantanamo, Israeli Hostages Update, Changes at FEMA
NPR's Lauren Sommer from our Climate Desk.