There are many parts to the One Big Beautiful Bill, which in combination with the cuts initiated by DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) should give us serious concerns.
We have all heard of the serious cuts to Medicaid, erroneously targeting mainly users of the system over the providers that fraudulently bill the system. We know that the tax cuts will add over $3 trillion to the national debt over 10 years while not asking the wealthiest citizens to pay more.
However, let’s look at a particular obscure cut incorporated into this bill to get another sense of how wrong headed our Republican Congressional representatives and President are. The one I want to focus on relates directly on the terrible flooding tragedy that has occurred in our region.
There has been much discussion and hand wringing about how the warnings to those in peril of the Guadalupe flood dangers were inadequate. Forecasts, alerts, staffing, site alarm systems have been brought forward as, if not inadequate, that they should have been better. I think we can all agree that improving forecasting and warnings are important as natural disasters are not going away.
Matter of fact, they are increasing.
We have all seen the headlines and reports of the multiple billion-dollar plus disasters that have and continue to hit our nation. But we must not be seeing the trend as we seem content to elect politicians who ignore and discount the trends as some kind of climate change propaganda concocted by leftists - or a China hoax (per Donald Trump. ) Consider ignoring the fact that 2024 was the 14th straight year with 10 or more billion-dollar plus disasters. Then consider that the average number of billion dollar plus disasters from 20202024 is 23 with a total cost of three-fourths of a trillion dollars.
This information comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information which has tracked these events from 1980. They counted the number of events and their costs for droughts, wildfires, floods, winter storms, freezes, severe storms, tropical cyclones. Their tallies indicate that, even accounting for inflation, all of the USA’s costliest disasters have occurred since 2000.
In knowing this information, what did the Republican Congress and President do?
They rescinded $56 million out of a $150 million program intended to “accelerate advances and improvements in research, observation systems, modeling, forecasting, assessments, and dissemination of information to the public” around weather forecasting. (This was inserted into the “Beautiful” bill by none other than ‘vacation Ted’ Cruz.) NOAA grants totaling $50 million to study climate related impacts on oceans, weather systems, and coastal ecosystems were also removed.
Add in the fact that NOAA has had massive staffing losses from firings of probationary employees, DOGE buyouts, and early retirements. Now 8 of 122 National Weather Service offices cannot operate around the clock. Upper air balloon soundings, critical for accurate forecasting, have dropped by 17% mostly due to staff shortages according to Yale Climate Connections.
To increase the absurdity of these types of actions, the 2026 NOAA budget plan would close all NOAA labs. This includes the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Oklahoma that has developed is researching one of the key tools for flash flood forecasts.
The amounts of money involved with what we are talking about at NOAA are chump change for the billionaire class but absolutely critical for everyday people, particularly those like the children and families that were enjoying their summer by the Guadalupe River.
ThenconsiderFEMA.Are the states ready to absorb the full costs of every major disaster within their borders? At this point, no state can do that.
For example, Texas received an average of $1.4 billion per year in Federal assistance from 2015 – 2024 covering 16 disasters. (This amount includes funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development - another department on the Trump chopping block.)
Thus, does it make sense for DOGE to cut FEMA staffing by 20%? The total staff lost at FEMA is now 25% including 1/5 of the coordinating officers who manage responses to largescale disasters. At the start of last year’s hurricane season, FEMA had 6,588 trained staff available to deploy to disasters. This year, at the end of May, there are under 2,000 according to reporting by the NY Times.
Is eliminating $300 million in funding the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program of FEMA a beautiful move? This is a fund that helps communities prepare for and mitigate impacts from disasters.
Is it brilliant to have any FEMA grant over $100,000 need a sign-off from the Secretary of Homeland Security so that the delays currently being experienced in recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene in North and South Carolina can be felt by many other parts of the country? Just recently the head of FEMA’s Urban Rescue and Support office for our region resigned over frustration at the agency’s sluggish response to our region’s catastrophic floods. Let’s also recall that Homeland Secretary Noem arrived at the scene on a Friday with the President and other politicos and the first FEMA responders showed up the following Monday. The responders should always come first.
Finally, how much do we like having partisan decisions from the President regarding who gets disaster funding help such that Democratic leaning states have had their requests rejected in 6 out of 10 cases and Republican leaning states have been rejected in 1 out of 15 cases? Should a Democratic President act the same way?
The Republican Congress and President own these blindingly “beautiful “actions.
W Laurence Doxsey, Retired, Former Director of Office of Sustainability for City of San Antonio, former Environmental Officer for US Department of Housing and Urban Development, former Sustainability Officer for City of Austin, resides outside Medina.
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