One GOP Florida congressman believes states could go bankrupt this hurricane season, and columnist Frank Cerabino is asking his fellow statesmen to keep their “fingers crossed.”
“We’re about to get screwed like never before,” Cerabino said. “I don’t know where the storms will go, but I’m pretty sure the federal umbrella of help we’ve always relied on will be in tatters.”
Cerabino's reasoning is based on “the gutting and defunding of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA," which is reportedly "one of the many bits of collateral damage to the Trump administration’s dogged effort.”
Trump received more than 6 million votes from the Sunshine State in November, but none of those voters likely knew how much their state relies on FEMA.
“From 2015 to 2024, Floridians received more FEMA assistance ($2.5 billion) than the citizens of any other state,” Cerabino noted.
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President Trump appointed David Richardson to head FEMA and execute his plans. This has resulted in a 30% reduction in staff. It has also cut billions of dollars in programs that help states hit hard by natural disasters.
“The Trumping of FEMA would be especially terrible for Florida,” Cerabino wrote. “As much as Gov. Ron DeSantis likes to pretend that we here in Florida don’t need FEMA for hurricane relief, we really do.”
Congressman Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) was Florida’s emergency management director before he was elected to Congress.
He believes that without FEMA, Trump-voting states along the Gulf Coast, like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, could soon be facing catastrophic financial repercussions.
“Those states go bankrupt without FEMA,” Moskowitz said. “And yet, I don’t see my Republican colleagues calling out the administration on how we’re going to save FEMA and reform it.”
“As we enter the hurricane season, the best we can do is hope that Mother Nature spares us from Father Numbskull,” Cerabino said.