Massive snowstorm will test Trump’s strategy on disaster aid

The monster storm that's threatening to dump snow across much of the U.S. could be a test of the Trump administration’s willingness to help states after natural disasters.

With heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain forecast to begin falling Friday and continuing into Monday over a massive swath of the country, from the Rockies to the Atlantic, governors from dozens of states could be forced to navigate shifting policies under President Donald Trump, who has set efforts in motion to reduce the flow of disaster aid to states. As governors declare emergencies ahead of the storm, some are wondering whether the White House will reject their requests for federal funding to help pay for cleanup and repairs if predictions for over a foot of snow in some areas prove accurate.

“They’re preparing for the worst,” said a former senior Federal Emergency Management Agency official who was granted anonymity to describe discussions with state officials. “They’re preparing for no grants, no money.”

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers expressed concern Tuesday about Trump denying disaster aid for snowstorms in a report accompanying a proposed Department of Homeland Security spending plan for fiscal 2026. The report by House and Senate appropriators from both parties said the spending package “reaffirms Congress’ intent … that snowstorms shall be eligible for Federal relief.”

A spokesperson for Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat, said in a statement that the willingness of Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "to turn even the weather into a partisan issue and play politics with people's lives may make an already bad situation somehow even worse."

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in an email, "Any notion that snowstorms don't qualify as a disaster defies logic — and is unnecessarily cruel."

FEMA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The administration raised alarms last year when then-FEMA acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton suggested cutting off disaster aid for snowstorms in an internal memo. No action has been taken on the memo’s proposals.

It came as Trump denied numerous gubernatorial requests for disaster aid, even though FEMA had confirmed that the damage exceeded the agency’s cost threshold for aid. The administration has given no explanation for the denials, creating uncertainty among state emergency managers. FEMA makes recommendations about disaster requests to the president, who has exclusive authority to approve disaster aid under federal law.

In Maryland, Trump denied a request in July by Gov. Wes Moore (D) for disaster aid to help rural, Republican communities recover from extensive flood damage that FEMA found caused damage that was millions of dollars above the agency's cost threshold.

"Now they want to arbitrarily deny disaster assistance to communities hit by snowstorms regardless of the severity of the event," Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) said in a statement to POLITICO's E&E News on Thursday. "As communities across the country prepare for this weekend's snowstorm, this blanket policy is all the more alarming."

In one highly controversial decision last year, Trump approved some disaster aid for Michigan after a devastating ice storm in March damaged infrastructure including power lines in the northern part of the state. But at the same time, Trump denied a request by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) for $90 million to help two rural electric utilities repair their equipment. The utilities raised rates to cover the costs.

Federal disaster law lists snowstorms among the events that qualify for disaster aid, along with extreme winds, wildfires, floods and others. But the law does not require any allocation of disaster aid.

Since 2016, presidents have approved 18 disasters following snowstorms, costing FEMA $272 million altogether, according to Hamilton's memo. Both numbers are a small fraction of the hundreds of approved disasters and tens of billions of dollars that have been spent.

Craig Fugate, who ran FEMA during the Obama administration, said states often cut their funding for snowstorm-related programs after experiencing no snow for several years. Then they turn to FEMA to fill budget holes when storms hit.

“When budgets are lean and you’re not having a lot of snow, you cut those snow removal operations and when you get caught short you say, ‘Oh, well, the federal taxpayer will bail us out,’” Fugate said in an interview Thursday. “We tried to set the thresholds to say, unless this is an extraordinary event, it should not be supplanting state and local responsibility to fund snow removal and treatment operations on their highways on the back of the federal taxpayers."

FEMA’s daily report Thursday showed that the agency was monitoring the storm at its regional offices across the country and at its Washington headquarters. The agency has nearly 4,200 employees available to be deployed to disaster areas, the report said. A year ago, FEMA had 2,400 disaster employees available. The number is higher this year because the Trump administration has been reassigning workers from state field offices to its Washington headquarters.