Help Us — or Stop Taking Our Money
Washington wants the states to handle more disasters. Our investigation found states borrowing money, draining reserves, and even preparing to replace FEMA services while they wait for federal help.
When your house is underwater, you do not care which government office has jurisdiction.
When fire is moving toward your neighborhood, you do not care whether the money comes from Austin, Sacramento, Jackson or Washington.
You want somebody to show up.
For generations, that has been the bargain behind America’s national disaster system. Cities and counties respond first. States mobilize police, firefighters, emergency managers, and the National Guard and troops. When the catastrophe grows beyond what they can reasonably handle, the resources of the United States of America become the backstop.
That is not some liberal theory of government. It is essentially how the Stafford Act works. The Government Accountability Office describes FEMA’s role as providing disaster assistance when effective response and recovery exceed state and local capabilities. (GAO Files)
President Donald Trump wants to change that relationship.
His March 2025 executive order declared that state and local governments—and individuals—should play a “more active and significant role” in national preparedness. A Trump-appointed council has since recommended changes that could reduce federal disaster assistance and potentially cut the federal share of eligible public disaster costs from the traditional minimum of 75% to 50%. (The White House)
That sounds like Washington is returning disaster response to the states.
Our investigation found something different.
The states were already doing much of the responding. What Washington is beginning to send back is the bill.
More Than 50 Sources, One Pattern
For this report, I reviewed more than 50 government documents, agency reports, state publications, local and national news reports and other records from more than 20 organizations.
The individual pieces have been reported.
What has received far less attention is what happens when those pieces are put together.
North Carolina is lending money to its own counties because FEMA reimbursements have not arrived.
Mississippi created a $125 million state loan fund so cities and counties can finance disaster recovery while waiting for Washington.
One Mississippi city borrowed millions from a bank and began paying nearly 6% interest.
Ohio is preparing instructions for counties to operate disaster centers traditionally run by FEMA.
Texas counties are waiting for Washington while hundreds of homes sit damaged.
And Congress has now ordered FEMA to create a public dashboard because counties have sometimes waited years for reimbursement without even being able to clearly determine where their money was in the process. (National Association of Counties)
These are not isolated anecdotes.
They are pieces of a changing American disaster system.
Exhibit One: North Carolina Becomes the Bank
Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina.
The storm disappeared from national headlines long ago.
The bills did not.
In March, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein proposed another $791.6 million in state recovery spending. His budget document is remarkable because it describes openly what local governments are facing: mounting recovery costs and erratic federal reimbursement.
North Carolina proposed $50 million more for a revolving cash-flow loan program specifically to keep local governments operating while FEMA money is outstanding. The state had already provided 109 loans totaling more than $148.5 million.
As of December 31, 2025, only $126,238 had been repaid.
Why?
The loans are designed so repayment can wait until FEMA finally reimburses the local government—or finally tells it that reimbursement is not coming. (NC OSBM)
North Carolina’s budget document explains the reason plainly: the money allows communities to avoid budget cuts, protect essential services, and begin infrastructure work before FEMA reimbursement arrives. (NC OSBM)
Think about what that means.
A county has a disaster.
It fixes the road.
It removes the debris.
It pays the contractor.
Then, while waiting for Washington, the state government has to become the county’s banker.
North Carolina estimates that its overall state matching need for federal disaster programs related to Helene could reach $1.2 billion. The state says it must cover initial Public Assistance and hazard-mitigation expenses until FEMA reimburses eligible costs. (NC OSBM)
The federal government has not eliminated the expense.
It has forced somebody else to carry it.
Exhibit Two: Mississippi Borrows While Washington Decides
Winter Storm Fern struck Mississippi in January 2026.
By April, Mississippi had created something extraordinary:
A $125 million disaster loan pool.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency says the money exists so local governments can finance recovery expenses while awaiting FEMA Public Assistance funding. (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency)
Read that again.
Mississippi taxpayers are lending money to Mississippi cities and counties because those communities are waiting for federal disaster money.
And if FEMA ultimately determines that an expense will not be reimbursed?
The local government still owes Mississippi the money. (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency)
Before that state program existed, some communities had already gone to banks.
Corinth, Mississippi, borrowed $3 million privately to cover storm expenses.
The interest rate was nearly 6%. (Mississippi Free Press)
At that rate, $3 million costs roughly:
$180,000 a year in interest.
That money does not remove one additional fallen tree.
It does not repair another road.
It does not put another family back into its home.
It is simply the cost of borrowing money because the disaster happened before Washington’s check arrived.
Corinth’s mayor said the state loan program could save taxpayers substantially on interest. (Mississippi Free Press)
There is the hidden disaster tax.
Washington delays. The interest meter keeps running.
Exhibit Three: A County Stopped Cleaning Up
The problem is not merely accounting.
Sometimes the work stops.
After tornadoes struck Mississippi in March 2025, Walthall County spent about $700,000 removing debris.
Then county officials stopped.
For more than a month.
They could not afford to keep spending without knowing whether the federal government would reimburse them.
Broken trees and wreckage remained piled along roadsides.
Once the federal declaration finally came, the county took out a multimillion-dollar loan and resumed cleanup. A county supervisor said taxpayers would continue paying interest until FEMA reimbursed the county. (AP News)
That is no longer a theoretical argument about federalism.
The debris sat there because the county could not afford to keep moving it.
Trump took 50 days after Mississippi’s governor submitted the disaster request before approving the declaration. (AP News)
The tornado had already happened.
The damage had already happened.
The bills had already arrived.
Washington was still deciding.
Exhibit Four: Ohio Is Preparing to Replace FEMA at the Front Door
This may be the quietest—and most revealing—thing we found.
The Ohio Emergency Management Agency is developing what it calls a Disaster Recovery Center Playbook.
Why?
Disaster Recovery Centers traditionally are places opened after major disasters where survivors can meet FEMA personnel, obtain information, work through applications and get help understanding available assistance.
Ohio says that as FEMA’s restructuring becomes clearer, the state believes FEMA will very likely stop opening and operating those centers.
So Ohio is preparing county emergency-management agencies to do it themselves. (Cloudinary)
There it is.
Not speculation.
Not somebody on television predicting what might happen.
A state emergency-management agency is preparing to replace a service FEMA traditionally provided.
If you were not reading an Ohio emergency-management publication, you probably never heard about it.
Exhibit Five: Texas Says It Cannot Handle It Alone
Now come home to Texas.
Donald Trump once explained his philosophy very simply: disasters should be moved back toward the states, where governors can handle them. He added that governors unable to handle disasters should not be governors. (AP News)
Then Texas flooded again.
On July 17, Gov. Greg Abbott asked Trump for a major federal disaster declaration after flooding struck the Hill Country.
Abbott wrote that effective response and recovery were “beyond the capabilities of the State of Texas and affected local governments.” (Express News)
Texas.
The nation’s second-largest state.
A Republican governor.
One of Trump’s closest political allies.
And Texas itself said:
We cannot handle this alone.
More than 800 homes in Kerr County alone were damaged. Roads, bridges, utilities and businesses were hit. Three weeks after Abbott’s request, local officials were still waiting for the broader federal declaration. (Express News)
Republican Kerr County Commissioner Tom Jones finally said:
“I do think the president needs to step up.” (Express News)
Jones said he supports Trump.
But flooded roads apparently do not care how you voted.
Neither does fire.
Neither does a tornado.
Neither does a hurricane.
And Abbott’s admission destroys the idea that every state can simply absorb every catastrophe that comes its way.
Sometimes Texas needs America too.
That is the entire point of having a country.
Washington Is Taking Longer
The Associated Press analyzed FEMA disaster data going back to 1989.
During Trump’s second term, major disaster declarations have taken an average of approximately a month and a half after the governor’s request.
That is longer, on average, than under any other president in the period AP examined.
Because governors first have to assess damage and prepare their requests, the total time between the catastrophe and federal approval can exceed two months. Seventy percent of Trump’s approved requests have taken at least a month. (AP News)
Under Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, average approval times were under two weeks. (AP News)
A month sounds bureaucratic.
Try saying it differently.
Thirty mornings after your house burned.
Thirty nights after the water went through your living room.
Thirty days while your county keeps paying contractors.
Then forty.
Then fifty.
The disaster does not wait for Washington.
FEMA Has 1,079 Open Disasters—and Fewer People
There is another number almost nobody sees when a wildfire appears on television.
As of June 2, 2026, FEMA was still engaged in response or recovery work connected to 1,079 open disaster declarations. (GAO Files)
At the same time, FEMA’s workforce has been shrinking.
The GAO reported that FEMA employed about 20,968 people as of April 18, 2026, and concluded that workforce reductions were made without first determining the number and types of employees necessary to carry out FEMA’s mission. The watchdog warned that inadequate workforce planning could put FEMA’s ability to perform that mission at risk. (GAO Files)
So we have more than a thousand unfinished disasters.
New floods.
New fires.
New tornadoes.
And a federal government deliberately reconsidering how much of that responsibility it wants.
And Washington May Pay Even Less
For years, eligible FEMA Public Assistance has generally operated with the federal government paying at least 75% and state or local governments covering the rest.
Trump’s FEMA review council has proposed lowering the federal minimum to 50%. (AP News)
The arithmetic is brutally simple.
Suppose a disaster produces $400 million in eligible public costs.
Under a 75-25 arrangement:
Federal government: $300 million
State/local government: $100 million
At 50-50:
Federal government: $200 million
State/local government: $200 million
Washington saves $100 million.
But the bridge still costs the same.
The road still costs the same.
The debris still has to be removed.
The fire truck still burns diesel.
The contractor still sends an invoice.
The disaster did not become $100 million cheaper.
Washington simply changed the address where the bill was mailed.
Then Why Are We Sending the Money to Washington?
This is where the argument becomes much larger than FEMA.
Americans pay federal taxes because there are things a town cannot do alone.
There are things a county cannot do alone.
There are even catastrophes that Texas, California, Florida, or North Carolina cannot reasonably absorb alone.
That is why we pool national resources.
A hurricane may overwhelm one state.
It does not overwhelm the United States of America.
A wildfire may destroy a county’s tax base.
It does not destroy America’s tax base.
A small town may not be able to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars.
Washington can.
That national financial capacity is one of the things Americans believe they are buying with their federal taxes.
So if Washington’s new answer is:
Handle it yourself.
Then taxpayers are entitled to ask:
Why are we still sending you so much of our money?
You cannot have this both ways.
You cannot collect the money nationally when the sun is shining and then rediscover states’ rights when the river leaves its banks.
You cannot tell Mississippi to borrow.
Tell North Carolina to front the cash.
Tell Ohio to build its own FEMA operation.
Tell Texas to wait.
And then congratulate yourself for reducing federal spending.
You did not eliminate the cost.
You moved it.
Why Haven’t We Heard More About This?
That question is what started this investigation.
There have been fires.
Floods.
Tornadoes.
Entire communities damaged.
Years ago, we seemed to hear constantly about what FEMA was doing.
Now much of the story is harder to see.
One reason became apparent as we researched it: the information is scattered.
The federal declaration is on one website.
The governor’s request is somewhere else.
State emergency-management spending appears in another document.
County borrowing may be buried in meeting minutes.
A state loan program appears on another government page.
The FEMA reimbursement may not arrive for months—or years.
The newspaper covering the tornado reports the tornado.
The newspaper covering the budget reports the budget.
The reporter covering Congress reports the FEMA bill.
Nobody necessarily puts the three together.
Congress has now implicitly acknowledged that problem.
A 2026 law requires FEMA to build a public dashboard showing Public Assistance reimbursement requests, cost estimates, federal and non-federal shares, status information and explanations for delays. The National Association of Counties says counties had sometimes been waiting years without clear visibility into where reimbursements stood. (National Association of Counties)
In other words:
Congress finally ordered somebody to build the scoreboard.
Until now, Americans have largely been watching the disasters without seeing the score.
Red States, Blue States, Burned Houses
There is another troubling piece of evidence.
AP found that during Trump’s second term, he has approved approximately 80% of disaster requests from Republican governors but only about 60% from Democratic governors. AP found no president since 1989 with such a large partisan disparity. (AP News)
That deserves scrutiny.
A tornado does not register Republican.
Floodwater does not ask whether the governor endorsed Trump.
A California house burns at the same temperature as a Texas house.
Disaster assistance should depend upon the disaster.
Not the electoral map.
But this investigation does not require proving political favoritism.
The broader case is already strong without it.
Republican Mississippi is borrowing.
Republican Texas is asking Washington to step up.
Ohio is preparing to replace FEMA services.
North Carolina is advancing hundreds of millions of dollars while federal reimbursements lag.
This is not simply Democrats complaining about Donald Trump.
The financial pressure crosses party lines.
“Let the States Handle It” Sounds Better Than What It Means
There is something almost deceptive in that phrase.
The states already handle disasters.
Local firefighters fight the fire.
Sheriff’s deputies close the road.
County crews move debris.
State emergency officials coordinate resources.
Governors activate National Guard troops.
What the national government provides is something no small county and few states can provide by themselves:
the financial strength of the entire country.
So when Washington says it wants states to handle more disasters, listen carefully.
The fire engine was already local.
The sheriff was already local.
The National Guard was already under the governor.
The thing being transferred is increasingly financial responsibility.
That is why North Carolina needs hundreds of millions in cash-flow money.
That is why Mississippi created a $125 million loan pool.
That is why Corinth borrowed $3 million.
That is why Walthall County stopped debris removal.
That is why Ohio is preparing a FEMA replacement playbook.
And that is why Greg Abbott had to tell Donald Trump that some disasters exceed even Texas’ ability to handle them.
Help Us—or Stop Taking Our Money
Donald Trump says governors should handle disasters.
Here is my response:
Fine.
If Washington no longer wants to provide the national financial backstop Americans have been paying for, then return enough of our money so the states can build one themselves.
Let Texas keep more of the federal taxes Texans send to Washington.
Let Mississippi keep its money instead of borrowing while waiting for Washington to return some of it.
Let North Carolina keep enough money that counties do not need state bridge loans while waiting for FEMA reimbursements.
Let Ohio use the money to hire the people who will staff the disaster centers FEMA may no longer operate.
But do not take the money first and disappear when we need it.
You took our taxes before the hurricane.
You took our taxes before the tornado.
You took our taxes before the flood.
You took our taxes before the wildfire.
Then the emergency arrived.
Where were you?
That is the question Americans should begin asking.
Because natural disasters are not going away.
There will be another hurricane.
Another flood.
Another wildfire.
Another tornado.
Another American family will stand where their home used to be and discover that their city does not have enough money, their county does not have enough money, and their state is trying to find enough money.
That is precisely the moment when being part of one nation is supposed to matter.
If Washington intends to be there, then be there.
If not:
HELP US — OR STOP TAKING OUR MONEY.
How this report was developed
This investigation reviewed more than 50 government documents, emergency-management publications, state budget materials, federal reports, and local and national news reports from more than 20 organizations. Among the principal records were materials from the Government Accountability Office, FEMA, the White House, North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, Ohio Emergency Management Agency, National Association of Counties, Associated Press, and Texas reporting on the 2026 Hill Country floods.