Target: David Richardson, Acting Director of FEMA
Goal: Ensure Americans have access to emergency response services in wake of major disasters.
Dozens of survivors of deadly floods, fires, and other natural disasters across the nation recently converged in Washington, DC to remind out-of-touch federal leaders of the human toll wrought from these tragedies. They were compelled to action after a leaked and White House-backed report promised deep and devastating cuts to America’s emergency management services. The leaked report led to a cancellation of the meeting where these life-endangering cuts likely would have been cemented.
The report, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Review Council, outlined a plan to offload nearly all of the responsibility for emergency aid onto states, even states like North Carolina and Texas that have struggled in recent times to meet the moments of crisis with swift and decisive assistance. Moreover, stricter requirements would prevent many community residents from getting needed federal assistance to rebuild their homes and their lives. And perhaps most devastating of all, on-the-ground aid would lag and in some cases be entirely absent following a 50 percent slashing of FEMA’s workforce.
Without public pressure and urgent intervention, the next meeting called regarding FEMA’s future may be the last and the most consequential. Sign the petition below to demand leadership stop gutting the critical services that help Americans navigate their most difficult and challenging times.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Administrator Richardson,
An earthquake in Mexico City four decades ago gained notoriety not just for the lives lost but for the complete and utter collapse of national leadership. Rather than being able to rely on their elected leaders who were more interested in saving face, communities instead could only rely on each other to dig through the rubble and risk their lives to save lives. Fast-forward two decades, and the same failures and the same fate befell American survivors who battled the unrelenting waters unleashed by Hurricane Katrina.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Staffing cuts, resource depletion, and low morale at FEMA have already exacerbated tragedies like the 2025 Central Texas floods. If the planned 50 percent cuts to FEMA’s workforce, the more ruthless grant assistance mandates, and the shifting of financial and logistical burdens to struggling states continue, then once-in-a-lifetime disasters will become the norm. Communities and lives will be lost.
If you want to avoid this future, focus less on lie detector tests and walls of silence and more on building and supporting FEMA to be the pillar of strength and stability that Americans can rely on during their darkest hours.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Unknown
