* Politico…
The Trump administration’s disaster chief told state officials Tuesday they must increase their financial reserves and emergency capabilities to handle most disasters on their own, without federal help. […]
“Every state must have the appropriate financial reserves” and other abilities “to ensure that recovery efforts can start immediately and not necessarily be held up simply because of the federal [disaster] declaration process,” [Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Cameron Hamilton] said, according to a recording of his remarks obtained by POLITICO.
“A future that I hope we would shoot for is one where we wouldn’t require as many disasters because the capability of states is so high and so substantial,” Hamilton added, referring to presidential authorizations of federal disaster aid. […]
The Trump administration plans to launch “national mutual aid,” whereby states help each other recover from damaging storms, floods, wildfires and other events, Hamilton told state emergency management leaders. […]
The administration has not publicly announced any changes and has continued to approve disaster aid for weather-related events. Hamilton told the conference attendees that changes could begin “in the next six months.”
* I asked Gov. JB Pritzker’s office for a response…
“Donald Trump has weaponized and weakened FEMA, and now his handpicked lackey, Cameron Hamilton, is falling in line and suggesting states should be less dependent on the federal government after a disaster. This is not about dependency. This is about accountability and a shared national responsibility to protect all Americans from catastrophic disasters that require a comprehensive federal, state and local response. Instead, the federal government is denying valid requests for assistance from Democratic states impacted by severe weather, and cutting long-standing investments that have always been in place to support a state’s emergency response and recovery.”
“Despite Illinois’ substantial investments in emergency management, the cumulative effects of severe weather across the state will continue to exceed local capacities and further underscore the ongoing need for additional federal support to bridge critical resource gaps. As Donald Trump’s FEMA abdicates their sole purpose and responsibility, Governor Pritzker remains focused on fighting for all available and appropriate disaster relief needed most by our communities as they continue to recover and rebuild.”
Discuss.
* Related…
* CNI | Documents show state’s disaster request met FEMA’s threshold: The state itself spent $2.2 million on “personnel, expertise and equipment,” $100,000 to activate the State Emergency Operations Center, and $1.5 million in community development block grant funds for disaster response. There were 4,519 residential structures damaged throughout the state, including 46 that were completely destroyed. Most of the destroyed homes were in Cook County, which also accounted for half of the state’s damaged homes. All the damage to homes added up to $19.5 million.
* Tribune | Trump’s FEMA rejects Illinois disaster aid request for August storms: In a letter Wednesday, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Cameron Hamilton wrote that federal assistance was “not warranted,” Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said in a statement released on Thursday. The Pritzker administration said it would appeal FEMA’s decision. The denial comes in a record-breaking year for severe weather in Illinois, which leads the nation with about 212 tornadoes confirmed by the National Weather Service so far this year, according to Pritzker’s office. It also comes as Trump’s administration denied providing federal assistance to Illinois last year for storms, including when a deluge dumped five to six inches of rain in some areas in July 2025, flooding basements and damaging thousands of homes; the state of Illinois put the average household damage at $16,784.
* Insurance Business Mag | FEMA retreats from disaster response and launches a tool to sell flood insurance without brokers: “Every state must have the appropriate financial reserves and other abilities to ensure that recovery efforts can start immediately and not necessarily be held up simply because of the federal disaster declaration process,” Hamilton said in remarks obtained by Politico. “A future that I hope we would shoot for is one where we wouldn’t require as many disasters because the capability of states is so high and so substantial.” On the same day, FEMA launched a direct-to-consumer purchase tool through FloodSmart.gov, allowing homeowners and renters to buy an NFIP policy in minutes without going through an agent. The two announcements are not coincidental. They describe the same strategy from different angles: a federal government reducing its backstop role while making the remaining federal product easier to access directly.
- @misterjayem - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 9:19 am:
“The Trump administration plans to launch ‘national mutual aid,’ whereby states help each other recover from damaging storms, floods, wildfires and other events”
We already have national mutual aid — it’s called “the federal government.”
– MrJM
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 9:21 am:
What misterjayem said.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 9:31 am:
We’ll see how that works out when the next big hurricane rips up Gulf of America red states. /s
- Roadrager - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 9:32 am:
==The Trump administration plans to launch “national mutual aid,” whereby states help each other recover from damaging storms, floods, wildfires and other events, Hamilton told state emergency management leaders.==
What misterjayem wrote is what “national mutual aid” is supposed to be.
What these crooks and freaks want it to be is to give Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana mandatory free reign over coffers in Illinois, New York, and California the next time a hurricane hits, without ever having to worry about reciprocation. Because then when an EF4 hits DeKalb County, it’ll be the fault of all those crooked Illinois Democrats for not keeping enough disaster funding in reserve.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 9:34 am:
So if states can no longer rely on the feds for support perhaps we should rethink how much we send to Washington? Because part of maintaining “appropriate financial reserves” would be accomplished by keeping more revenue within the state. I think that math would work out just fine for Illinois taxpayers.
- CA-HOON! - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 9:37 am:
“National mutual aid” just means that Trump will help red states and not blue. Trump sees mutual aid as being “submit to me completely and *maybe* I’ll help so that those loyal states don’t drown/burn/starve during disasters.”
- hmmm - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 9:47 am:
We’ve already seen data that this administration is denying Blue state aid requests at an unprecedented rate. This administration is far more crooked and partisan than the first time around.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/08/donald-trump-denies-disaster-aid-democratic-states-00989418
- XonXoff - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 9:47 am:
All I got from that is there’s either a pile of taxpayer money about to go missing or it’s already gone.
- old man poodle owner - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 9:47 am:
When the storms hit Coles County, the State of Illinois did not send down IDOT to clear the streets, nor did they send work camp prisoners to help out.
The surrounding counties such as Champaign, Macon, Fayette etc sent PW workers to go down and help out.
Where was JB that week? Not down there.
- ZC - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 10:07 am:
Beyond the flagrant corruption and partisan hypocrisy everyone’s already discussed, another summary of Donald Trump is he thinks the economist’s concept of a “public good” is for chumps. The federal government just … do something for all its people, without an explicit quid pro quo, because it’s more efficient and it saves money and lives? I think he literally can’t process that. Why would he spend money on something like that, without making some kind of “deal,” or getting some “leverage” from it?
- Pundent - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 10:23 am:
=When the storms hit Coles County, the State of Illinois did not send down IDOT to clear the streets, nor did they send work camp prisoners to help out.=
That’s your take on this issue?
- Walker - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 10:26 am:
This might be somehow defensible as part of a “conservative” fiscal strategy, if the current administration hadn’t already massively increased our Federal deficits and debt.
It’s simply extremist political ideology.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 10:36 am:
ZC +1
=Where was JB that week? Not down there.=
Governors usually are not working on tree clearing crews.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 10:50 am:
Another example of how the current administration is re-writing the constitution. Congress passed legislation creating FEMA and codified rules for its operation. None of that has changed.
The idea that any president can just shut that down is plainly wrong. Once again they are refusing to spend appropriated funds for the purposes authorized under the law.
- Illiana - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 11:02 am:
=“Every state must have the appropriate financial reserves” and other abilities “to ensure that recovery efforts can start immediately and not necessarily be held up simply because of the federal [disaster] declaration process,”=
On paper, I don’t actually disagree with this sentiment, however, considering the Administration that it’s actually coming from, I don’t trust the sincerity.
- Rudy’s teeth - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 11:03 am:
The words arbitrary and capricious come to mind when denying aid to communities suffering from disasters. Such a failure of leadership from a certain individual in DC.
- Anyone Remember - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 11:15 am:
“This might be somehow defensible … .”
This smacks of the worst excesses of David Stockman.
- Annon'in - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 11:17 am:
Pretty sure FEMA response and support levels set and funded by federal law ( aka Congress voted)Large states can get shorted due to formulas that include statewide pop. in determining fed help. However in recent IL denial threshold was reached> IL got hosed by TACO.
- Mason County - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 11:26 am:
=Statewide indicator (FY 2026): $1.94 per person in eligible public infrastructure damage
fedlaws.org
.
Example: A state of 5 million people needs at least $9.7 million in eligible public damage to meet the indicator.
Countywide indicator (FY 2026): $4.86 per person in eligible public infrastructure damage
.
Example: A county of 50,000 people needs at least $243,000 in eligible public damage to meet the indicator.
These are starting points, not automatic pass/fail cutoffs. FEMA also considers:
Severity and scope of damage= Those amounts might be raised. At lease worth considering. But totallly left to states- NO.
- Excitable Boy - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 11:34 am:
You have to free up money somehow so there’s more to steal. Not sure how this will help with the midterms though.
- Suburban Dad - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 11:49 am:
I guess I’ll be blunt. When will the few remaining GOP members of Congress from IL grow a pair and stand up to Trump. Ray LaHood had integrity, too bad his son is such a waste of space.
- Scurvydog - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 12:54 pm:
It is comforting when I read something, decide what I think it means, and then I see exactly what I was going to say, already written by MrJM.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 1:00 pm:
=and then I see exactly what I was going to say, already written by MrJM.=
You are not alone in that, and it is always better stated by Mr.JM than it would be by me.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 1:57 pm:
End this game.
There’s two ways:
1) Tell everyone that Trump is siding with the terrorists by defunding relief for 9/11.
New York is, and remains, the #1 recipient.
2) Call his bluff and end FEMA. Close it down. Let the GOP figure out how to deal with the incessant disasters in the Gulf states. Watch Florida’s ballyhooed economy collapse without federal dollars to subsidize their construction industry. I’ll happily join with New York and California and any other blue states.
- Don't Bloc Me In - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 2:26 pm:
“Where was JB that week? Not down there.”
After the F3 tornado hit Effingham County that week, JB stayed out of the way so that clean up wasn’t disrupted. After the emergency was over he visited the county.
Now, Mike Bost on the other hand…came in unannounced, as usual, to meet with a couple Republican elected officials. His message was there would be no FEMA help, and that residents should rely on insurance.
- Proud Sucker - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 2:26 pm:
“When the storms hit Coles County, the State of Illinois did not send down IDOT to clear the streets, nor did they send work camp prisoners to help out.”
That hasn’t been a thing ever (or maybe since the 1930s, not sure, I’m only 60). That’s why we set-up IPWMAN (Illinois Public Works Mutual Aid Network) modeled after MABAS. The State participates through grant assistance and comms equipment, but not with laborers and chainsaws.
- old man poodle owner - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 3:39 pm:
- Proud Sucker - Wednesday, Oct 21, 26 @ 2:26 pm:
“When the storms hit Coles County, the State of Illinois did not send down IDOT to clear the streets, nor did they send work camp prisoners to help out.”
That hasn’t been a thing ever (or maybe since the 1930s, not sure, I’m only 60). That’s why we set-up IPWMAN (Illinois Public Works Mutual Aid Network) modeled after MABAS. The State participates through grant assistance and comms equipment, but not with laborers and chainsaws
So those were not IDOC convicts I saw cleaning up after FARMAID or the Ogden Tornados back in 94?
Also, if these tornados were so bad as everyone mentioned was the IL NG activated? No? Why not?