АНУ-ын Ерөнхийлөгч Дональд Трамп Ардчилсан намын удирдлагатай дөрвөн мужийн гамшгийн тусламж авах 227 сая ам.долларын хүсэлтийг хэрэгсэхгүй болгосон нь улс төрийн маргаан дагуулаад байна.
Хоёрдугаар сард болсон хүчтэй цасан шуурганы улмаас Нью-Жерси, Нью-Йорк, Массачусетс болон Род-Айленд мужууд холбооны тусламж хүссэн юм. Холбооны онцгой байдлын удирдлагын агентлаг (FEMA) болон Далай, агаар мандлын үндэсний захиргаа (NOAA) эдгээр мужийн хохирлын хэмжээ нь холбооны тусламж олгох босгыг давсныг баталгаажуулсан боловч Ерөнхийлөгч Трамп дээрх хүсэлтүүдийг зөвшөөрөхөөс татгалзжээ. Тухайлбал, Род-Айленд мужийн хохирлыг 19 сая ам.доллар гэж үнэлсэн нь тогтоосон хэмжээнээс ес дахин их байсан ч тусламж олгогдоогүй байна.
Трампын засаг захиргаа улс төрийн ялгаварлан гадуурхалт хийгээгүй гэж мэдэгдсэн ч Бүгд найрамдах намын хяналтад байдаг мужуудын хүсэлтийг батлах магадлал Ардчилсан намын мужуудаас гурав дахин өндөр байгааг судалгаа харуулж байна. Өнгөрсөн долоо хоногт олон арван муж улс гамшгийн тусламжийг улс төрийн бодлоготой холбон хязгаарлаж байна хэмээн үзэж, Трампын засаг захиргааг шүүхэд өгчээ.
Үүний зэрэгцээ, эрчим хүчний салбарын 7.5 тэрбум ам.долларын санхүүжилтийг цуцалсан нь зөвхөн Ардчилсан намын нөлөө бүхий мужуудад чиглэсэн үйлдэл байсныг Эрчим хүчний яам шүүхийн баримт бичигт хүлээн зөвшөөрсөн байна. Уг шийдвэрүүд нь холбооны санхүүжилтийг улс төрийн зорилгоор ашиглаж буй эсэх талаарх шүүмжлэлийг улам бүр эрчимжүүлж байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
President Trump reportedly rejected $227 million in disaster aid requests this month from four Democrat-led states, despite federal disaster officials certifying that damage in these areas hit established thresholds to trigger federal aid.
In the wake of a record-setting snowstorm that hit the East Coast in February, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island sought federal assistance.
Regional offices of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration affirmed the extent of the need in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to documents obtained by Politico, while officials in New York told the outlet they also had a request rejected despite administration officials allegedly concluding it met federal standards.
In one alleged example, FEMA’s New England office certified more than $19 million of damages in Rhode Island, more than nine times FEMA’s usual cost threshold for the state.
President Trump still rejected the request despite this analysis, a highly unusual move, according to disaster experts.
“I can’t think of a time a declaration was denied,” a former FEMA official told Politico.
The Independent has contacted the White House and NOAA for comment.
“FEMA assesses a number of factors to determine the severity, magnitude, and impact of a disaster event,” the agency told The Independent. “Major disaster declaration request evaluation factors considered include estimated cost of the assistance, localized impacts, insurance coverage in force, hazard mitigation, recent multiple disasters, programs of other federal assistance, state fiscal capacity and resource availability, uninsured home and personal property losses, disaster-impacted population profile, impact to community infrastructure, casualties, and disaster related unemployment.”
It declined to comment on whether the president had rejected any of its analyses about the snowstorm.
The Trump administration has denied political favoritism played into the July aid decision, which came two days after President Trump approved disaster aid to six Republican-led states. (In general, the president has approved nearly 90 percent of requests from states governed by members of his party, more than three times the rate of approvals for Democrat-led states, Politico previously found.)
Since the George W. Bush administration, presidents have approved all but one request for snow aid that meets FEMA standards, according to a recent analysis.
Last week, more than a dozen states sued the Trump administration, arguing it was wrongly trying to tie election and immigration policy demands to federal disaster aid.
The Trump administration has scoffed at the suit, calling it “partisan pushback” against “commonsense measures” from “leftwing politicians.”
The Trump administration initially toyed with eliminating FEMA, though a Trump-backed review council recommended earlier this year that the agency instead share more work with state and local governments while streamlining its processes.
Lawmakers are considering a bipartisan bill to elevate FEMA from its place inside the Department of Homeland Security to an independent, Cabinet-level agency, while expediting payments to survivors.
The Trump administration has often sought to use federal funding as a cudgel to force Democratic and liberal jurisdictions into policy changes, especially in higher education, where the White House has threatened to cut off billions of dollars in support to targeted university systems.
In court documents this month, the administration admitted that it canceled a block of roughly $7.5 billion in Biden-era clean energy funding “based solely” on the fact the money was flowing to projects in Democratic-led states.
The cuts were not based on “any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction, or performance-based factor,” the Department of Energy conceded as part of early negotiations in a federal lawsuit from University of California researchers.
Instead, the grants were included on a list of cancellations announced in October “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state, i.e., whether the recipient’s location and/or place of performance was in a Blue State or a non-Blue State.”
The department added that with one exception, 284 terminated grants were slated to fund projects in Democratic-led states or states that voted for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in 2024. The roughly 340 grants that survived the chopping block were “in a state that awarded its electoral votes to President Trump in the 2024 election” or had at least one Republican senator, according to court filings.
