Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves once called federal disaster policy “ass-backwards.” Now, the fast-talking Pelican State native is a possible pick to run the nation’s emergency response operations as the head of President-elect Donald Trump’s Federal Emergency Management Agency, writes Thomas Frank. The backdrop: more frequent and intense natural disasters fueled by climate change and a president-elect who calls global warming a “hoax.” A spokesperson for Graves, along with the president-elect’s transition team, declined to comment on the lawmaker’s prospects, but Tom confirmed his consideration with current and former senior FEMA officials. While Graves is not a professional emergency manager — unlike the typical profile of FEMA directors after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina — he’s developed a reputation as one of the Capitol’s most knowledgeable lawmakers about disaster response. Graves, who entered the House in 2015 and is retiring in January, has led bipartisan efforts to improve FEMA’s response to disasters. For example, he co-sponsored bipartisan bills to accelerate FEMA’s aid payments and simplify the application process for disaster money. “He knows how to get stuff done in Congress. … That may be a positive thing for the agency and disaster survivors,” said Pete Gaynor, who ran FEMA from 2019 to 2021 in the first Trump administration. When Graves ran for Congress in 2014, both the Environmental Defense Fund and the Koch brothers supported his campaign. Environmentalists have since derided his record — he has a lifetime rating of 6 percent with the League of Conservation Voters. Graves has been an aggressive — and at times, witty — questioner of FEMA officials as a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, often delving into arcane details. But the 52-year-old has also repeated misleading GOP criticism of FEMA. He recently chastised current FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell for the agency’s emergency shelter program along the Mexico border, falsely claiming that more funding was available for migrants seeking shelter than for Hurricane Helene survivors. Graves has also been a leading critic of a FEMA program that has increased federal insurance premiums by making them more accurately reflect the flood risk of each property. Graves first made a name for himself when, as a top Louisiana official, he pushed through a highly contentious 50-year coastal master plan to secure his state’s rapidly diminishing coastline from erosion and rising sea levels. He also represented Louisiana in negotiations with BP over the company’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, helping to secure $360 million from the company to build barriers to absorb oil before it seeped into interior wetlands. Thad Huguley, government affairs director at the International Association of Emergency Managers, called Graves one of the “most knowledgeable members of Congress in the details and nuances of federal emergency management policy.” Graves “would be a solid pick, in my opinion,” he said.
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