What Does The Federal Response To Texas Floods Indicate About FEMA's Future?

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump has said he is considering eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. We discuss FEMA's role in helping Texas communities recover from recent flash floods, and what that response indicates about the agency's future.

This episode: senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro, and environmental correspondent Rebecca Hersher.

This podcast was produced by Casey Morell & Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The House of Representatives has approved a White House request to claw back two years of previously approved funding for public media.
0:08.0	The recisions package now moves on to the Senate.
0:11.2	This move poses a serious threat to local stations and public media as we know it.
0:16.6	Please take a stand for public media today at goacpr.org. Thank you.
0:24.6	Hi, this is David from Fayetteville, Georgia. I am running lines for our community
0:29.9	theaters, Shakespeare and the Parks Project. This podcast was recorded at 105 p.m. on Monday,
0:41.2	July 14th. Things may have changed by the time you hear it,
0:43.6	but I could a tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul,
0:46.7	freeze thy young blood, and make thy two eyes
0:49.5	like stars start from their spheres.
0:53.3	Okay, enjoy the spheres. Okay. Wow.
0:54.2	Enjoy the show.
0:58.3	Okay, pop quiz.
1:00.1	Which Shakespearean work was that from?
1:02.8	Oh, no.
1:04.2	That is, I think, Hamlet.
1:07.2	All right.
1:08.3	We'll see.
1:08.7	We'll find out when our much smarter listeners write in to tell us how wrong or right we were.
1:14.5	Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.
1:21.5	And NPR climate correspondent, Rebecca Herscher is here. Hello. Hi. So today on the show, we are looking at the flooding in Texas and how the
1:31.8	federal government has responded to the crisis. Rebecca, I want to start with how the federal
	...

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