President Trump signed the $19 Billion Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding bill aboard Air Force One in the beginning of June while he was in Europe for the 75th commemoration of D-Day. It includes funding for flooding in the Midwest, funding for Florida's hurricane relief, and more funding for Puerto Rico, as well as funding for repairs of Tyndall Air Force Base. President Trump was also trying to tie funding for his border wall to the FEMA bill, but it failed in Congress.

There have been some problems with FEMA. For an example, even if a house is unlivable after being damaged by a natural disaster, FEMA doesn't reimburse unless the home has been totally destroyed. That's unfair to people in Puerto Rico and in the Midwest where flooding has dominated the news headlines.

 

Flooding in the Midwest

FEMA is providing funding for the Midwest flooding disaster cleanup, and money to cover farm crops that were damaged. The Arkansas river rose above its previous record level due to the flooding. 18 Million Americans were in the flood zone on June 8th, 2019. North Carolina and Virginia have had torrential rains. Trump calls this “Extreme Weather”, rather than due to Climate Change, against virtually all scientists. It is unfortunate that the President of the United States didn't declare a state of emergency regarding this flooding, which would have sped up the disaster recovery efforts by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Agricultural subsidies in the FEMA funding bill cover crop damage from the floods.

 

Funding for Florida's Hurricane Relief

Governor Rick Scott said that his state's funding was being held up in Congress due to President Trump's unwillingness to give more money to Puerto Rico. Obviously it's important to make sure that we're not wasting taxpayer money, but at the same time it's ridiculous that the President has held up funding for a state that he needs to win in 2020 in order to be re-elected. There's no reason that Congress can't pass bills, and then see if the President will sign the bills, but instead Republicans in the Senate are doing President Trump's bidding, and not allowing bills to come to the floor for a vote unless they know that President Trump will support them. The Republicans have done a sham job with this regards. The after effects of the hurricanes in the Florida Panhandle include mental health disorders, job displacement, and debris that still hasn't been picked up.

 

More Funding for Puerto Rico

Congress approved additional funding for Puerto Rico, which is still recovering from hurricane Maria. President Trump tried to limit how much disaster funding was provided to Puerto Rico because he said that they were using it to pay off their debt. The fact of the matter is that Puerto Rico is still far from recovery, and the United States cannot turn its back on any part of the American population. The President would rather spend money on his unnecessary border wall, than admit that there were nearly 3,000 deaths in Puerto Rico, and some people still have tarps instead of roofs over their heads. If another hurricane hits Puerto Rico, the President of the United States will be responsible for the damages and lives lost. Puerto Rico's infrastructure needs to be restored to the way it should have been done from the very beginning.

 

Funding for Tyndall Air Force Base Repairs

Hurricane Michael devastated Tyndall Air Force Base in October 2018, and more funding was approved for disaster recovery. It's amazing how long it took Republicans to approve funding for this disaster.

 

Wildfires

The uptick in wildfires across the west coast, including in California, Arizona, and Texas indicates that the science behind Climate Change is solidly founded. It's because of bad polluters like big oil and coal producers that have been inadvertently causing CO2 to enter the atmosphere at record levels, thus creating climate changes all over the West Coast, leading to more wildfires. Patrick McElhiney thinks there needs to be a Federal investigation into the uptick in wildfires, and that the parties responsible need to be held accountable. Climatologists, Forest Managers, and Firefighters suggest that the problem is only going to keep getting worse. We need to find out what is causing the increase in fires, so that the families and businesses that have been displaced have the ability to sue to recover their property, and the government has the ability to make changes to prevent future wildfires.

Companies such as PG&E need to be held to the highest standard. There's no excuse for downed power lines that cause massive wildfires, costing the Federal Government billions in recovery aid in disaster management funds through FEMA and other organizations. Some people don't make it out alive, like in the case of the Camp Fire - the deadliest wildfire in California's history, and the people or companies responsible for loss of life need to be held criminally liable. PG&E knew about the problems it was having before the fire started, and they need to receive their Justice for allowing power lines to become dilapidated.

The Camp Fire killed 85 people, and burned the entire City of Paradise to the ground. The transmission line that went down was built in 1921. PG&E hasn't told the public when the line that went down was last inspected. Every time PG&E has an issue, there's another issue that pops up. Dry conditions contributed to the spread of the fire. CEO Bill Johnson said that PG&E accepts responsibility, and they have a multi-year plan to harden the safety of their systems. They are talking about turning off power to communities where there are risks of fire, for 2-5 days. PG&E was already facing $20-30 billion dollars in lawsuits, and filed for bankruptcy. There's not a lot of confidence that the steps that are being taken to prevent fires will work, and turning off people's power for days during dry times isn't a good solution to the problem. Patrick lived in California during the rolling blackouts during the Enron scandal. It can get almost unbearable to live when it is 110-degrees outside and you don't have power to run your air conditioner. PG&E should do more to service and replace old power lines, to ensure that the power can stay on during the hottest and driest days, without the risk of causing deadly wildfires like the Camp Fire.

The fire season is probably going to be worse this year, according to testimony from the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in Congress.

 

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