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Trump’s administration has approved major disaster declarations for at least seven states, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said, moves that can unlock federal support for recovery efforts such as repairing public infrastructure and providing aid to disaster survivors.
In a FEMA daily briefing document released Saturday, the agency said the major disaster declarations covered Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota and Washington. The approvals, FEMA said, allow affected communities to access federal support tied to the declarations.
FEMA said that even as those decisions were granted, additional requests remained unresolved. The agency said about 15 requests for assistance from other states and tribes for extreme weather events from this year and last were pending, along with three appeals of previous denials.
The timing of the approvals comes weeks into a transition at FEMA’s oversight level. The AP reported the briefing document arrived after Markwayne Mullin became Homeland Security secretary, a role that includes responsibility for the disaster-relief agency, and after the leadership turmoil that followed President Donald Trump firing Kristi Noem in March.
Mullin said Tuesday that he planned to brief Trump that day on the pending declaration requests, describing an effort to move older and unresolved applications forward. He also said he planned to accelerate work on past disasters in the run-up to the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1.
“We’re trying to push this stuff forward as fast as possible,” Mullin said after surveying Hurricane Helene recovery work in North Carolina on his first official visit as DHS secretary, adding that “disasters are happening constantly,” according to the AP report.
The AP report also tied FEMA’s near-term operational challenges to the continuing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. The story said disaster response and recovery can continue during the shutdown because FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund does not lapse, but that funding for the fund is running low as the shutdown drags on, with the DHS appropriations bill described as set to replenish the fund with more than $26 billion.
The AP reported that White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Saturday that Trump responds to disaster requests “with great care and consideration,” emphasizing that the administration aims to ensure American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by states. Jackson also said states and local governments should “invest in their own resilience before disaster strikes,” so that response is less urgent and recovery less prolonged.
The AP report said FEMA’s broader future remains uncertain, including because Trump has expressed interest in pushing more disaster responsibility down to states. It also noted that a FEMA Review Council Trump appointed last year had not released a recommendation report that was expected to include changes to how the federal government supports disaster resilience, response and recovery.
In the wider context of FEMA decision-making, the AP cited complaints from some states that they faced long waits or denials for disaster declarations. The report said Hawaii Governor Josh Green told his state had received a disaster declaration for devastating March flooding, and that Trump amended past disaster declarations for Tennessee and Mississippi by adding more counties for individual assistance after a January winter storm. The AP also reported that an analysis in September found approvals were taking more than a month on average, and that Arizona had been waiting nearly three months on an appeal after being denied support for severe storms and flooding that occurred in September.
The AP report said none of the major disaster declarations approved this week included hazard mitigation funding, which the story described as a once-typical add-on. It added that Trump had not approved a hazard mitigation request for more than a year.