Trump’s executive order gives states more control during disaster response

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday, empowering state and local officials to respond during disaster response and threats.

The order creates a "National Resilience Strategy," aiming to reduce complexities and simplify federal policies on preparedness and response. 

Trump’s new executive could shift disaster response control to states

What they're saying:

"Federal policy must rightly recognize that preparedness is most effectively owned and managed at the State, local, and even individual levels, supported by a competent, accessible, and efficient Federal Government," the order says, adding, "When States are empowered to make smart infrastructure choices, taxpayers benefit."

His order seeks to inject "common sense into both infrastructure prioritization and strategic investments through risk-informed decisions" and will make "our infrastructure, communities, and economy more resilient to global and dynamic threats and hazards."

The order continues, "It is the policy of the United States that State and local governments and individuals play a more active and significant role in national resilience and preparedness, thereby saving American lives, securing American livelihoods, reducing taxpayer burdens through efficiency, and unleashing our collective prosperity."

Within 240 days, the order says that the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, in coordination with the heads of relevant agencies and informed by the reports and findings of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Council, will need to review all national preparedness and response policies and recommend to the president the revisions and replacements necessary to reformulate the process for federal responsibility.

Trump previously vowed to reduce FEMA’s role

The backstory:

The order follows Trump's previous promise to reduce or do away with FEMA.

In January, the president suggested he'd be open to reducing FEMA's role or eliminating it entirely.

"FEMA has really let us down, let the country down," Trump said at the time. "And I don't know if that's Biden's fault or whose fault it is, but we're going to take over. We're going to do a good job."

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After arriving in North Carolina, the president also said he wanted to look "at the whole concept" of FEMA.

"I'll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA," Trump said. "I think, frankly, FEMA is not good. I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to go, whether it's a Democrat or Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA."

He added: "And then FEMA gets here, and they don't know the area. They've never been to the area, and they want to give you rules that you've never heard about. They want to bring people that aren't as good as the people you already have. And FEMA has turned out to be a disaster."

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In addition, he signed an executive order in January creating a council to evaluate FEMA’s response to disasters around the country and recommend potential reforms. 

Trump also signed a directive on Tuesday eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion measures at the State Department, mirroring similar efforts around the government.