Washington state emergency managers say President Donald Trump’s cuts and recent denials of federal relief funds are making them nervous for inevitable wildfires and other catastrophes.
Under Trump, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied assistance in Arkansas for tornadoes and West Virginia for flooding. It also shot down North Carolina’s request for additional relief after Hurricane Helene and refused Washington state’s plea after the November bomb cyclone knocked out power for more than half a million people.
State and local governments rely on federal aid to prepare for and recover from natural disasters. And without that aid, they are forced to fill in the gaps, said Chandra Fox, deputy director of emergency management for Spokane County.
Or they can carry on as normal and hope nothing bad happens.
“It’s budgetary Russian roulette,” said Fox, who was among the responders to major Spokane County wildfires in 2023 that burned thousands of acres and killed two people.
The Trump administration has also frozen or eliminated grants for a wide variety of categories across the federal government. Trump is taking particular aim at climate and environmental science while simultaneously loosening regulations to encourage more use of the fossil fuels that are worsening climate change across the world.
Trump has also fired federal workers in droves, creating yet another choke point.
This month, Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, fired FEMA’s acting administrator after he broke with the administration and underscored the agency’s importance across the country.
Dave Upthegrove, Washington’s public lands commissioner, said people across the country would be left behind if the Trump administration continues to walk away.
Upthegrove can’t say for sure whether Washington is now on its own. He doesn’t know. And federal officials aren’t saying.
White House officials could not be reached for comment.
“We’ve had no communication,” Upthegrove said. “No information beyond what we see in the news.”
Major catastrophes across the country are becoming more frequent and severe, a phenomenon exacerbated by climate change.
Trump has withheld federal grants as a way of forcing schools, governments and more to fall in line with his purge of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts as well as his administration’s hard-line immigration policies. Federal judges have ruled some of these tactics unconstitutional.
Upthegrove said so far, all he’s seen from the federal government has only been “chaotic and disruptive and unhelpful.”
State and local government officials appear to have little recourse to stem the tide from the Trump administration.
Those in Congress might have a better shot. But Washington’s two representatives in the majority Republican Party, Dan Newhouse and Michael Baumgartner of Sunnyside and Spokane, respectively, haven’t pushed back publicly on Trump on this topic. They also did not respond to requests for comment.
Upthegrove said Washington state and the smaller governments within its borders aren’t equipped to handle major expenses related to disasters. Most are struggling to close huge budget gaps of their own. Lawmakers slashed the state’s wildfire prevention budget in half recently as part of a push to close the state’s $16 billion budget hole.
As the heart of wildfire season nears, Upthegrove said Washington should be covered for this particular year. But the more time passes without federal partners to guard against these disasters, the greater the risk becomes.
FEMA gave out more than $3 million in grants to people affected by the Gray and Oregon Road wildfires in 2023, though the fires caused an estimated $166 million in property damage.
The federal government later allocated more than $44 million for the county’s recovery efforts.
Typically a government has to suffer a certain amount of damage before it can request a presidential disaster declaration to unlock emergency aid from FEMA, said Fox, a certified emergency manager with 30 years of experience. Generally what’s burning in rural areas is a lot of land, so passing that threshold can be difficult and counties must band together to request federal help.
For some, though, that land is one of their biggest revenue sources. Like with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Of the tribe’s 1.4 million acres, well over half consists of timberland, making up one of its main sources of income. Wildfires tearing through those forests can spell doom for their economy.
And these days, we’re seeing “megafires” spanning hundreds of thousands of acres, said Colville tribal Chair Jarred-Michael Erickson.
Former President Joe Biden declared disasters after fires swept through Colville lands in 2021 and 2024, unlocking millions in FEMA aid. Erickson said the supplemental cash is essential for rehabilitation work the tribe and neighboring communities can’t afford on their own.
The damage isn’t always as obvious as charred buildings and smoldering houses. Erickson said wildfire can clear out timber harvests, forcing a salvage logging operation to recoup at least some expenses. The flames can harm the soil, preventing substantial growth for decades to come and giving rise to noxious weeds and erosion or flooding issues.
Wildlife suffers, as does the tribe’s ability to collect culturally significant foods, like huckleberries.
“It’s hard to put a monetary value on these things,” Erickson said.
Erickson said he worries about the future of federal funding not only for his own community but for their neighbors as well. Wildfires and other natural disasters don’t adhere to county lines and their devastation can easily ripple throughout the region.
