FACT SHEET: Trump Administration Cuts To Forecasting, Readiness, Recovery, And Research Are Putting Lives In Texas At Risk
Last Updated: 6/4/26
- TRUMP’S CUTS TO EXTREME WEATHER DISASTER PREVENTION AND RECOVERY PROGRAMS HURT TEXANS
- TRUMP’S GUTTING OF NOAA AND NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FUNDING IN TEXAS THREATENS FORECAST ACCURACY AND TIMELINESS
- TRUMP’S MOVE TO SLASH AND CONSOLIDATE THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE UNDERMINES WILDFIRE RESEARCH AND RESPONSE IN TEXAS
- RECENT EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS IN TEXAS HAVE CAUSED DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, AND SUCH EVENTS WILL BECOME MORE FREQUENT AND MORE DEADLY WITH CLIMATE CHANGE
TRUMP’S CUTS TO EXTREME WEATHER DISASTER PREVENTION AND RECOVERY PROGRAMS HURT TEXANS
- Trump’s cuts jeopardized 30 projects in Texas selected for FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) funding, totaling $74 million.
- A $50 million grant awarded to Austin to prepare for climate disasters, including flood-mitigation efforts, was canceled.
- Other BRIC grant recipients included $290,100 to Mission for drainage engineering design, $859,800 for Alton to build a solar microgrid at the Alton Recreation Center, $913,800 for Harlingen to make drainage improvements, $112,500 for Sinton to go toward flood mitigation and resiliency project scoping, and $76,000 for Sarita to develop a multi-hazard mitigation plan for Kenedy County.
- In December 2025, a federal judge found FEMA’s actions were unlawful and ordered the reinstatement of BRIC. In March 2026, FEMA was forced to reopen program applications following an order requiring funding to be made available.
- FEMA missed 58% of helpline calls during the 2025 Texas Hill County flooding, and those who did connect had to wait an average of 25 minutes.
- In May 2026, Trump’s FEMA Review Council recommendedraising the threshold for disasters to qualify for federal assistance and shifting more financial and administrative burden for recovery and preparedness onto states.
- Texas received more FEMA money than 47 states, behind only Florida and Louisiana on total FEMA dollars.
TRUMP’S GUTTING OF NOAA AND NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FUNDING IN TEXAS THREATENS FORECAST ACCURACY AND TIMELINESS
- As of June 2025, the NWS office serving Houston and Galveston did not have a Warning Coordination Meteorologist, a Science and Operations Officer, or a Meteorologist in Charge.
- The office is located in an area known as “flash flood alley,” which frequently experiences hurricanes.
- Meteorologists-in-charge had decades of experience and each captained a team of forecasters. They also managed relationships with local media and the local emergency management community, which were crucial external relationships.
- As of June 2025, the NWS office serving San Antonio and Austin did not have a Warning Coordination Meteorologist or a Science and Operations Officer in place.
- The office was responsible for areas impacted by the devastating Central Texas floods that killed over 135 people in July 2025. The vacant position’s responsibilities would have included overseeing NWS’s contact with local emergency officials.
- As of June 2025, the NWS offices for Brownsville, El Paso, San Angelo, and the Fort Worth Center Weather Service Unit each did not have a Meteorologist in Charge in place. At that same time, the NWS office serving Midland and Odessa did not have a Science and Operations Officer in place.
- NWS’s weather balloon launch cuts could potentially impact weather forecasts in Texas. Data from weather balloons helped Texas meteorologists know what to expect, including ahead of tornadoes across southeast Texas in December 2024 and a snowstorm in January 2025.
- Travis Herzog, chief meteorologist at Houston’s KTRK-TV, warned that weather balloons were still the best source of real-time weather information.
- Space City Weather meteorologist Matt Lanza called the lack of data collection a “straight-up public safety issue,” exacerbated by proposed cuts to research.
- Even Republican Sen. Ted Cruz argued that weather forecasting and warning systems needed more, not less, investment, citing deadly 2025 flooding as an example of why up-to-date radar information and effective warning systems were imperative for Texas.
TRUMP’S MOVE TO SLASH AND CONSOLIDATE THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE UNDERMINES WILDFIRE RESEARCH AND RESPONSE IN TEXAS
- In 2026, Trump’s chaos and cuts at USFS led to reductions of 44% in prescribed burning and 40% in fuel-reduction work – two leading strategies for wildfire prevention – ahead of fire season.
- The Trump administration planned to close the state’s only USFS research facility in Nacogdoches.
- Closing research facilities will drive scientists away from the sites they manage, resulting in data loss for scientists studying wildfire risk, drought, pests, and threats from climate change.
- USFS research consolidation will undermine the timely implementation of new fire suppression technologies and strain relationships between fire protection personnel and researchers.
- Under the Trump administration’s reorganization of the agency, all regional USFS offices were slated for closure, including the Southern regional office in Atlanta, Georgia, which served Texas and employed 200-300 people.
- In Athens, Georgia, the USFS will open a new “Southern Appalachian State Office,” an office with just five to eight employees, alongside a new “Operations Service Center.”
RECENT EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS IN TEXAS HAVE CAUSED DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, AND SUCH EVENTS WILL BECOME MORE FREQUENT AND MORE DEADLY WITH CLIMATE CHANGE
- Between 2010 and 2026, Texas saw 154 billion-dollar extreme disasters, totaling more than $300 billion in damages.
- Between January 2015 and October 2025, Texas received a total of $7,512,314,293 in FEMA Public Assistance and Individual & Household Program disaster assistance funding, responding to 18 disaster events.
- In the past decade, Texas has received $18,724,720,911 in FEMA disaster assistance funding.
- On July 4, 2025, heavy rains caused the Guadalupe River to rise 26 feet in just 45 minutes, the second-highest level on record. The flooding, which killed at least 135 people, was considered a “1 in 1,000-year” event.
- In 2017, Hurricane Harvey killed 89 people and caused $158.8 billion in damage in Texas. Scientists estimate the storm was 15% more intense due to climate change.
- During Hurricane Harvey, 14 Superfund sites in Texas flooded, including nine in low-income neighborhoods or communities of color. Nearly 100 spills of hazardous substances were reported, and 46 facilities in 13 counties reported an estimated 4.6 million pounds of airborne emissions that exceeded state limits.
- Between 2014 and 2024, Texas witnessed six drought events that caused a total of $58.2 billion in damages and 428 deaths.
- Between June 1 and August 31, 2024, 492 high temperature records were broken in Texas. Compared to the 1970s and 1980s, the state is expected to see the number of 100-degree days quadruple by 2036, with a higher frequency of 100-degree days in urban areas.
- In 2023, 450 people died from heat-related causes in Texas. By 2100, the number of heat-related deaths in the state is expected to rise to over 5,800 annually. From 2010 to 2021, 53 workers died from extreme heat in Texas, many of whom were people of color.
- El Paso and Tyler are the third- and fifth-fastest warming cities in the nation, with the annual average temperature having risen 5.9°F and 5.3°F since 1970.
- Texas is already seeing more frequent and more destructive wildfires — a trend influenced by climate change and population growth, and the state’s wildfire risk is the second-highest in the country after California.
- 10.3 million Texans live in areas where wildfire poses a high or very high risk to homes.
- Texas experiences an average annual flood loss of $1.5 billion, which is expected to increase by 47% by 2050.
- By 2036, Texas is expected to see the frequency of climate-driven urban flood events increase by 100% relative to 1950-1999 levels and 50% relative to 2000-2018.