'Reeling from mass layoffs': This Trump policy may come back to haunt Republicans

08 July

Members of the media raise their hands to ask questions, as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

In Central Texas, the death toll from flash floods has passed 100. Far-right Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, are accusing Democrats of politicizing the tragedy. But a combination of Democrats, scientists and environmentalists are saying that they have legitimate questions about the Trump Administration's major cutbacks to the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the effect they are having on disaster preparedness.

In an article published by Politico on July 8, reporters Zack Colman, Annie Snider and James Bikales stress that the questions scientists are asking aren't going away.

"Kerr County, Texas, wasn't prepared for the deluge that killed more than 100 people this weekend, despite more than a century and a half of flash flooding along the Guadalupe River," the journalists explain. "Other communities around the country may find themselves just as exposed for the next catastrophe, emergency managers and scientists warned — pointing to the soaring toll of climate change and the Trump Administration's steep cuts to weather and disaster spending."

The NWS and its parent organization, according to Colman, Snider and Bikales, "are reeling from mass layoffs and early retirements pushed by President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency."

Moreover, the "big, beautiful bill" that Trump signed into law over the 4th of July Weekend " canceled more than $200 million in spending that was supposed to improve weather forecasting and make communities more resilient to disasters," the reporters note. And Trump is proposing eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) entirely.

Michael Coen, who served as FEMA's chief of staff under former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, believes that some of the deaths in Kerr County, Texas were preventable — and told Politico that "many people did not need to die."

"(Coen) said Kerr County should have invested in better flood defenses or, at the very least, relocated camping cabins away from the river," Colman, Snider and Bikales report. "The gutting of the national infrastructure around weather emergencies comes at the same time that climate change is making severe disasters more common and more dangerous, according to studies and past warnings from the U.S. government — including during the first Trump Administration."

Former FEMA official David Maurstad warns that extreme weather events, including floods, are growing increasingly common.

Maurstad told Politico, "The frequency and the severity associated with these types of events all across the country have been substantiated over and over again. I don't know how anybody can ignore that."

The Trump Administration, Colman, Snider and Bikales note, "proposed cutting $2.2 billion from the (National) Weather Service's parent organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in its fiscal 2026 budget request, affecting virtually every program at the agency."

"It would eliminate the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research — NOAA's main research arm, which Republicans say has been too focused on climate change — and shift much of its responsibilities to the NWS and National Ocean Service," the Politico journalists explain. "Many local governments' efforts to prepare for and respond to extreme weather are already strapped by limited resources…. Kerr County's decision to forgo an early warning system is an example of how many communities are ill-equipped to protect themselves from once-unfathomable extremes, experts said."

Colman, Snider and Bikales add, "They warned Trump Administration cuts will undermine flood and other disaster preparation as climate-fueled events reset expectations for worst-imagined outcomes."

Read the full Politico article at this link.

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