The Republican leader of the House Appropriations Committee disputed President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel billions of dollars in disaster grants, telling a top administration official Tuesday the grants are “extraordinarily valuable.”
Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said at a hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that the grant program has helped communities “mitigate the next disaster before it strikes.”
Trump canceled the program in April, denying states $3.6 billion that had been approved for projects designed to reduce potential disaster damage, such as demolishing flood-prone homes. The program is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency within the Department of Homeland Security.
“Please know that there’s strong bipartisan support for the program, as there was when President Trump introduced it and signed it into law back in 2018,” Cole said, referring to a broad disaster bill that created the grant program. “They have been extraordinarily valuable to communities.”
