Editor, Gazette-Journal:
A letter in last week’s Gazette-Journal entitled “FEMA gone?” expressed surprise at the current administration’s efforts to shift responsibility for disaster relief from the federal government to state and local governments. This should come as no surprise to anyone, as the Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership, which provides the guiding principles of the current administration, clearly identified and published this as a goal prior to the 2024 presidential election.
Specifically, the document recommended “privatizing … the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program, (and) reforming FEMA emergency spending to shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government” (page 135), and stated that “The NFIP should be wound down and replaced with private insurance starting with the least risky areas currently identified by the program.” (page 154)
Insurance works on a shared risk ...