President Donald Trump defended his administration’s handling of the disaster during his Friday visit to Texas.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Reps. Greg Casar, D-Austin, and Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, have raised several questions about the Trump administration’s handling of the devastating floods in the Texas Hill Country.
The two members of the House Oversight Committee, along with the panel’s top Democrat, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, sent letters Friday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Commerce Inspector General and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
They requested information about the lead-up and response to the flooding as well as preparedness for future emergencies.
Their letter to FEMA seeks documents connected with reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s policies aimed at restraining costs could have delayed the deployment of search and rescue teams.
“We are deeply concerned not only that Secretary Noem may have effectively crippled the agency’s ability to respond to this crisis, but also that she failed to personally act to ensure a timely response,” the members wrote.
They acknowledged “many facts are still unclear,” while saying they are concerned about FEMA’s ability to respond to future emergencies.
Noem has called the reports false.
FEMA says Noem led a robust, coordinated response that has saved more than 900 lives. The response included surging U.S. Coast Guard, tactical Border Patrol units and agency personnel to the area alongside Texas first responders, according to FEMA.
Noem says she’s pursuing a new approach to disaster funding that puts states’ first and delivers money to them faster to speed recovery.
President Donald Trump defended the federal response during his visit to the state Friday, saying Noem has done a “fantastic job” and describing the flooding as a disaster on a scale not seen before.
The Democrats’ letters to the Department of Commerce Inspector General and NOAA drill down on reports that warnings failed to reach everyone in the impacted area.
They cited concerns that on the day of the flooding positions at National Weather Service offices in the state were vacant.
“Arbitrary cuts to vital services like NWS hurt emergency preparedness and put lives in danger,” they wrote.
Republicans have pushed back on the idea that weather service staffing cuts exacerbated the disaster.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, this week highlighted weather service warnings that were issued ahead of the flooding.
He also cited experts who say the local offices had adequate staffing when the disaster struck.
Joseph Morton covers the intersection of business and politics in the Washington Bureau. Before joining The News, Joseph worked for CQ Roll Call and the Omaha World-Herald. He graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
